Brave People
by Yavinus
Summary: This is a series of short chapters about teams ABRN and NDGO, how they met and what are their relationships between them. Aspiring to being huntsmen to protect the world from darkness...and the general antics of their own team members. Now Completed.
1. The lioness (Arslan Altan)

Hi everyone, Yavinus here . This is my first RWBY and I hope you enjoy it. Being an ABRN and NDGO central fic, the charachters personalities and interaction are generally headcanon. But don't worry, I will try my best to do it basing in what we saw in the show itself.

As normal, RWBY doesn't belong to me, but to Rooster Teeth.

This is also dedicated to Monty Oum, may his soul find peace.

* * *

" **Searching answers, it's what's motivates your soul**

 **Fearing abandonment, it's your nightmare**

 **A lioness that protects her pack, it's what you are"**

* * *

It was a beautiful night, with the moon looking almost complete, people walking through the city's streets. People were laughing and talking about mundane things. However, only a strange woman, who is dressed in robes that didn't pay attention to her surroundings. Her dark skin and platinum (almost to silver) hair that contrasted made her beautiful, but it was eclipse by her hardener expression, like a sculpted statue, making difficult to calcite her age. However, she is still young, very young, a person that lived only a fragment of her life. The girl holds her scroll, talking to someone.

"Look, it's my decision alone. When I went to the Combat Academy I was decided to become a huntress no matter what" her tone seemingly not angry, but clearly upset of something "I love you but I'm not a child anymore and what happened since that day is not going to turn me back".

After a few seconds, the girl awaited her answer, and then a male voice only audible to someone close came from the device. The young girl didn't say anything and pressed a button, finishing the conversation.

Arslan Altan sighed and walked to her destination, a medium sized building that was only three blocks away, the registration to Haven Academy. It had been only two months since she graduated from the Combat Academy with her friend Bolin Hori and she was ready to take the next step. Her partner already did it two weeks ago and she happily could did it with him if it wasn't by her uncles. Bless Dust that they supported her during her early childhood since "that" incident, but they could be stubborn about their will to convince her not to join the Huntsmen. They said it could only bring her painful memories back.

She sighed again and stopped for a moment waiting for traffic light to turn to red. She already killed her first Grimm at the age of fourteen, with her bare hands (although her Semblance helped her to accomplish such feat) and trained her body and mind during many years. Meditation helped her overcome certain memories. She wasn't afraid anymore, she was going to go forward fighting the darkness and looking the answers that was burning inside her. No matter what…

Suddenly, there was a loud noise and the smell of burnt rubber invaded the air, filling her nasal cavities with the foul essence. She only managed to catch a blurry but distinct figure of a car going to trough high velocities and she saw the result of the collision.

It was a miracle that the two vehicles weren't such a bunch of debris and melted metal. Fortunately enough, there wasn't a lot of traffic and the rest of the cars stopped in time. Her reflexes permits her to analyse the situation and act accordingly.

She didn't know much about models but the bigger car, the one that was running at high speeds, definitely wasn't a cheap one. She immediately opens the door and sees the person inside, a young teenager not much older than her. The first thing that invaded her nostrils is the smell of booze and vomit. She held her breath for an instant, pressing the seat belt button (thank Dust that the idiot didn't forgot about putting it) and pulled him outside. Cheeking his pulsing first, she notes that its relativity normal and didn't suffer from an alcoholic coma.

" _Good, at least this night isn't going to be sour"_ she thinks before putting him in a safe spot. She pretends not noticing the people surrounding her and the cars but she leaves a little sigh of relief seeing people marking the emergency number with their own scrolls _"Now for the other"_

She rapidly returns and tries to repeat the process, but the door is stuck and she can hear weak moans inside of it. They could be in critical state and breaking the crystal could only worsen the situation. Closing her eyes, she focused on her own self, canalizing the power of her soul, her Aura and then, she activates her Semblance. In a powerful, but controlled manner, she rips the door apart from the rest of the vehicle without breaking the window.

It's a young family, a man and a woman on their thirties, semiconscious, groaning. They didn't have any mayor injuries, but the sudden collision surely made a number on them. She pulls first the man and then the woman, only to realize the crying of infant. Some people nearby helps her and carry on the couple while she goes for the child. He is alright though, only really scared, feeling alone, fearing being alone.

It brought her memories.

She shaked her head and, remembering her training and long hours of meditation, and grabbed the child. She noted that he was a Faunus by his two dog-ears, she though with curiosity if he's adopted or a close familiar from either the man or the woman, because the two were clearly humans. She didn't dwell too much on it and she carried the small child in her arms. There is a thunderous applause from the people outside but the future huntress noted that some of them were less enthusiastic of it after seeing that it's an infant Faunus that she is carrying in her arms.

She ignored them and she waited for the ambulance. She didn't know how to take care of children, her uncles didn't have any and her past experience with them weren't very rich, but she tries her best on calming the young child, reciting a song that she didn't remember very well. However, the result is effective, as the child slowly, but surely, begins to lower his cries and the tears are less abundant than before.

She soon heard the ambulance and the medics comes. They take care of the teenager and the couple. Arslan gave the child to the doctor, his face stuck in an expression between surprise and gratitude.

"They were lucky that you were there, you helped a lot," he says while carrying the small boy "Aren't you a huntress? You have the look and the abilities of one"

The young girl moved her head in negation and the doctor's expression is one of surprise.

"I'm only going to Haven Academy this year, so still not an official one"

"Well, at least I can see in you as great member of the people who fights against the darkness," he said. "Your future is bright!"

Arslan gives him a dry glare before parting ways abruptly, leaving a puzzled and perplexed doctor. She didn't likes compliments, they aren't necessary, they only hinder the ones with clouded minds. She only cares about what its forward. The accident was a coincidence in a world full of them.

Arslan Altan simply walked ahead, towards her future, imagining the future battles and challenges ahead.


	2. Sharpened Ability (Bolin Hori)

Yavinus here. This is the second chapter, featuring Bolin Hori. I hope you enjoy it.

As always, RWBY doesn't belong to me but to "Rooster Teeth"

* * *

" **Great abilities grants people many chances**

 **Longing for being the best between others**

 **So that you can bring a better future for them"**

* * *

It was a normal day for Bolin Hori, simple walking at the streets while thinking about Haven Academy. He already passed the exams and he was excited about the future. His friend, Arslan, was also going with him. Maybe they could end up being together at the same team? Hardly, but that didn't stop him for enjoying his walk, until he felt the four presences that were following him through the morning. He knows them too well and while he could end this fast enough, he wanted to have some fun first. Therefore, he simply go along with it and played their childish game and went to an alley, the ones were there were not so many people. At the end, he turned back to face them. He was right. They were the same idiots as always.

He smiled as he saw with his amber eyes the group of thugs in front of him. Four young teenagers, all of them males. They were truly desperate, even after all those years training together at the same Combat Academy; they were still rancorous about not being accept into Haven Academy.

"So let me guess this straight," he young man held his wooden staff with confidence "You plan to take revenge against me, even if I proved to be superior in ability and intelligent that all of you combined, that I deserve to be a huntsman myself, without any kind of strategy or tricks?"

One of the thugs, a teenager taller than the man with the staff, unfolded his scimitar with a wild expression, between anger and happiness.

"Don't be so cocky Bolin…," he began to speak as he watched his sword with pride. "You were always Master's favourite, alongside with your friend, that bimbo of Arslan."

Bolin sighed and made a great effort in not rolling his eyes.

"Look, we all know you can only say that to me and not in front of her. You all know that she could send you to all of you a hospital for weeks, only drinking from a straw."

The young aspirant simple prepared his own stance, waiting for his enemy's strike.

"But I can do that myself, but you know what," a joyful light illuminates his eyes while his smile transform into a smirk. "It's not that hard."

A cry of anger filled the alley as the teen with the sword launched rapidly against him. But Bolin simple blocked the strike easily with his staff, stepping aside and letting the fury of his enemy make the rest. The scimitar guy fell to the ground, almost comically, his face hitting the dirty ground. The amused teenager dind't had time to contemplate his own work of modern art when the three other figures went rushing against him.

One of them, wielding a heavy hammer, tries to cripple him, but his adversary simple dodge, using the ending section of his staff to hit his shoulder. The pain is too much, even with Aura at his disposal, and dropping the weapon before seeing the staff going to the lower part of his body and felling another pain on his legs, falling to the ground, too late to realise his fatal mistake. Bolin faced his two other opponents, one wielding a war axe and the other, a whip. The teen with the weep had great reflexes and rapidly, he extended his weapon, grabbing Bolin's staff, leaving him defenceless. The guy with the axe takes advantage of this and beings to swing his weapon against the still smiling hunter-to-be.

Bolin stepped aside, dodging the attack easily, before grabbing the attacker's arm and hitting his face with his elbow. His opponent fell to the ground too.

The last person standing on the alley watched in awe, but that didn't intimidate him enough. He charged towards Bolin too, while using his staff against his own owner. However, he wasn't worried about this fact, as he simply grabbed the ending of his weapon from the thief's hands and proceeded to hit his chest whit the other ending. He rapidly felled on his own butt, groaning in pain.

"Didn't your mom ever tell you," Bolin lowered his gaze to watch his defeated opponent "to not hit yourself?"

His fallen rival looked at him with fury and tried to attack again with his whip, extending it for a moment, only to feel that something was stopping him from doing so. He slowly turned his head to see another person behind him, grabbing the leather with her right arm. Her face wasn't one of fury, but either of compassion. She rapidly pushed the whip, making his wielder hit the ground and passing out.

Bolin looked at the result of the brief fight and shrugged.

"So Arslan, why didn't came earlier for my help?" he asked while smiling.

The woman looked at him with a curious expression, like the one of a mother catching her child saying an obvious lie.

"I didn't saw that you needed any help, I only wanted to greet you and talk about Haven, only to catch some good old "friends" from the Combat Academy following you," Arslan said while getting closer to Bolin "I saw your performance in combat…passable, you shouldn't talk so much, the enemy could take advantage of that"

Her friend sighed before the two of them goes out of the alley, leaving the four unconscious young men in the ground.

"Look Arslan, I only talked because I knew that these guys weren't a threat, so I provoked them so I could have the upper hand," Bolin explained to the stoic girl "If I wasn't prudent enough, I wouldn't have passed the exams, you know?"

His friend gave him a serious expression before talking.

"From now on until the next week we will have to prepare to go to Haven, don't forget about that," she says before parting ways. "and be careful"

Bolin gives her a small smiled before going to his own home. Maybe mom prepared his favourite dish in celebration, he couldn't wait for it.

* * *

Author Notes: As you can see, this is my first RWBY featuring the side characters of Volume 3. I took some liberties in some things like the personalities, but I hope that it's well enough. Reviews and constructive criticism is always welcomed.


	3. Falling tree (Reese Chloris)

Yavinus here, this is the third chapter of my first RWBY fic, introducing Reese Chloris. Hope you enjoy it! And remember, constructive criticism is always welcomed.

* * *

" **Wanting to be free from this cruel world**

 **Detaching yourself from the earthly chains**

 **Wanting to reach the sun, the light, but falling"**

 **Falling down to the earth, being trapped again**

 **To the earthly chains, to the cruel world, again"**

* * *

" _Nice dream is nice, flyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing, flyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing in the skyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Beatifulllllllll forest, falling green and"_ her visions in the dream world are full of happiness, outside of the mundane necessities, whiout a worries…

 **TRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIII!**

"KYAAAAAAAAAAA," Suddenly, the sound of her alarm made her woke her up screaming to the heavens above "What the hell!? I was having a nice dream! There was a nice forest and...!"

A green-haired woman in the pyjamas grabed her scroll, only to see that it was the six in the morning. She cursed the devise to making her waking up so early, until she realised something.

"OH NO! TODAY IS THE ENTRANCE EXAM!" she then proceeded to cursed herself and forgive the poor scroll for doing its duty. She rapidly changed her clothes to her combat outfit and grabbed her beautiful hoverboard-dual pistol "Persephone", powered with gravity Dust. Eating breakfast and remembering all the classes in the Combat Academy. Greeting your parents as they wake up later. Finishing breakfast and receiving all the good lucks and such, she went out towards her destiny.

" _Okay Reese Chloris, if you don't screw up very hard today, maybe you could have great future as a huntress, only think in positive and everything will go smooth as silk"_

She blamed to her childhood friend Nadir Shiko for his advices on being punctual. She was about to take the bus but when Reese saw the enormous line of people waiting for it in the stop. She remembered tool late about the new remodelling a few streets back and that the public transport wouldn't come until half an hour later.

Cursing in your mind the entire ministry of the city, she decided to shove it and to improvise. She deployed her hoverboard, traversing the place while trying to remember the route. Her mind tries not to dwell too much in the fact that she forgot such a simple thing.

" _If there was a word that Nadir could describe me that would be "clumsy", I still remember that incident with the water Dust back in the Combat Academy. But no one couldn't deny that it was funny and even he enjoy it with me in the end and WATCH OUT IDIOT…"_

Reese barely managed to wake up from her own inner monologue and dodged the man with the expensive looking suit and tie. She only had some seconds to apologise to a very angry and pissed businessman before she resumed in her improvised travel.

After that, it didn't took long before she arrived to the entrance of the Combat Academy that it became so familiar to her. And in it, she saw a familiar figure, a tall young person with dark-skin and with a very noticeable pink hair. She procced to get close to greet him in her usual way, a little punch in his right arm.

"Hey Nadir, how did you managed to get here so early?" the green haired teen said to him while her friend gave her a look of confusion "I mean, you live farther from the Combat Academy than I do."

"Well, you see, I have this thing that you don't have and that's called "good organization" And also, don't do that again Reese, I want my arm functional for today" Nadir answered with a worried look on his face.

Reese left a small snort while she look at her scroll, the exam wouldn't begin until half an hour later, only to see that her friend's breathing was becoming very loud.

"Hey, aren't you nervous about the exam?" she asked to Nadir, who was now sweating.

"N…Not at all Reese, what are you talking about?" the pink haired teen responded while his eyes tried not to look at his friend.

Reese sighed and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Look, whatever happens, don't lose your cool in the exam, "she said while giving her best smile to him "Everything will be all right, just remember the basics and you will pass"

Nadir breathed a few times before he closed his eyes and opened, now with a shy smile on his face.

"Yeah, I can do it"

"Very well then, I will go first" Reese said as she prepared Persephone while the doors in front of them opened, "I hope that I can offer them the best spectacle ever, my awesomeness will blind them, I sure you."

Nadir left a small chuckle while they both entered, imagining their future.


	4. Carried by the tides (Nadir Shiko)

Yavinus here, this is the last chapther introducing the last member of ABRN, Nadir Shiko. Hope you enjoy it! Reviews and constructive criticism is always welcomed.

As always, RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth

* * *

" **Who are you, who are you**

 **You aren't yourself, only others**

 **Carried by the tides, without direction**

 **Being only others, not yourself"**

Nadir Shiko was in the cold metal ground, sweating a lot and the Ursa that was in front of him was about to kill him. He saw all of his short seventeen tears of life flash through his eyes. He heard the screams of his friend, Reese, trying to encourage him. However, it was the end, and nothing could change that.

Maybe if he could have been more decided, things could have changed for the better…

Then he remembered that first, well, it wasn't a Grimm that it was in front of him, but rather a robot that simulated to be one.

Second, the robot couldn't kill him, it was against the rules.

Third and last, his Aura was still on good levels and he wasn't going to give up so easily.

However, his weapon was knock out of his hands; he had to retrieve if he wanted to win the final test. The fake Ursa tried to attack him with his metal claws but he managed to dodge by rolling to his right. He jumped up and stood on his feet, now running towards his ticket to victory, feeling the metal imitation of a monster following him. He grabbed his rifle-sword and pointed to his enemy, now closer to him.

But he didn't shoot, instead, he waited.

And waited…

And waited…

He saw the fake Grimm now a few meters of him, his artificial red eyes shining with a controlled ill intend while his friend was screaming something. But he wans't paying not much attention about. His hands were trembling, trying not to panic.

" _You can do it, you can do it, you can do it"_ he repeated those words inside of his head many times.

The mechanical monster stopped only to stand up on its hind legs, preparing his strongest attack.

Nadir Shiko, by instinct and desperation, pulled the trigger and a barrage of bullets hit the vulnerable chest and neck of the machine, provoking heavy damage. The fake Ursa only stood there for a moment, before falling on its own back to the ground, like a puppet whose strings were cut.

There was thunderous cheer from the people watching the match, and a green haired girl in particular was very enthusiastic about his victory.

He couldn't believe that he managed to pass the entrance exam. Rather than smile and laugh, he was still sweating and trembling, until Reese literally jumped to the arena and hug him tightly.

"Dammit, don't do that, you're going to break my bone!" Nadir yelled to his friend.

"Bah, you always says that, and besides, you still have enough Aura" Reese said with a smirk

"But it's still hurts," Nadir complained "and besides, we both need to take a shower"

Reese blinked twice before let him out of her hug and raised her left arm to smell her armpit. Her face formed an expression of disgust and nodded.

"Yep, you're right," Reese raised an open hand and rushed towards the women's bathrooms "See you later"

Nadir simple sighed and went to the men's sections; he undressed himself, ignoring the commentaries of the others students that managed to pass. While he was in the shower, he thought about his particular friendship with Reese. He met her in primary school and they both maintained their platonic relationship, always following her.

Heck, she was reason that he dyed his own hair to pink, a choice that she always supported it even if some people gave him weird looks. It was natural that their decision to choose the Hunter's career was simultaneous…

" _She decided first, you only follow her"_ a strange voice suddenly said that in his head.

Strange, he didn't think in that way. It was always about friendship and mutual admiration, nothing more, nothing else.

" _But you are always undecided, only following another one's steps…"_

He shook his head, setting aside that voice and ignoring it completely. After he finished and went outside, he saw Reese waiting for him. All doubts disappeared when he saw her smile, and for that reason, he smiled at her.

"Hey, did you take your time in the showers, eh?" she said with a playful tone.

"Nah, it just I wanted to relax a little, you are the one who always rushes things," Nadir responded without losing his calm "And besides, I think we deserve a little rest of all of this"

"Yeah…" Reese said thoughtfully before her eyes shined with excitement "Hey, maybe later we could go the arcade, I think that today were going to premiere the new "Igma" machine, I read some reviews in the Net and they say it's super awesome!"

Nadir simple sighed and smiled at her enthusiasm.

"I think it's a good idea, so, in the afternoon at the same place?" Nadir asked.

Reese nodded and, with a final wink, she departed towards her home. Nadir watched her while thinking about the future.

Yeah, it would be great.

* * *

Author Notes: Some may have noted the fast paced way that I posted the last chapters. Well, that's because of the lenght, of them plus the next one will be longer and more detailed, some you will have to wait some time before I post again. As always, reviews and constructive criticism are always welcomed.


	5. Auburn

Yavinus here, now this time is the moment when ABRN is formed! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing this chapter.

* * *

It was a nice day, the sun shining, birds chirping, and all those things that makes a day better and exiting in a small planet with a broken moon, in a solar system that was one of many in the galaxy, in a vast, beautiful and terrifying Universe. Much more if it was the initiation of a new year in the Haven Academy of Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Many young teens were waiting for the airships at the skyports, some with visible excitement, others with controlled enthusiasm and a few were facing this particular day in this particular situation with solemn stoicism.

One of those particular people was a dark skinned woman with platinum hair sitting in her chair, wearing a very striking robe and a red necklace. Her partner that was at her left side was also wearing a very similar robe. This young boy was the only one between the presents that was visible bored.

"So, how long it will take until that flying turtle to come here?" Bolin yawned while he grabbed his scroll. It had already been an hour and a half since they arrived, but for some reason, the vehicle that was supposed to take them thirty minutes ago was taking its sweet time and the young teen was one that didn't like to wait.

"It will come sooner or later, being patient was one of our most important lessons that they though us in the Combat Academy, don´t forget It, and less on the first day," Arslan answered drily to his friend. Bolin left a snort and Arslan sighed. "Look its preferable to take things with calm and serenity, many moments like these that will test our own spirit and…"

Arslan couldn't finish her line when she heard the distinct screams of two people while running like if they were in a marathon.

"WE ARE GOING TO MISS THE SHIPS!" the voice of young girl reverberate in the skyport.

"IT'S BECAUSE YOU FORGOT AGAIN ABOUT THE NEW BUS SHELUDE AND I HAD TO RESCUE YOU FROM YOUR OWN CLUMSINESS, AGAIN!" another voice, a male one, responded.

The sliding doors opened to reveal the source of all the scandal, two young teens, one with green hair and another with intense pink, both clearly tired and sweating after running with their own bags all the way. Every one of the future Huntsmen looked at them for a moment before returning on their own matters.

The young girl with green hair walked a few steps before falling down to an empty chair at Arslan's right side, while breathing heavily. Her partner did the same thing. After a minute, the young girl looked at the mildly surprised dark skinned woman and her amused partner.

"So…did we miss it, isn't? She asked.

"Well…,"Bolin said while looking around "I believe that you're in luck today, you see, the ship certainly was worse than the two of you combined in dealing early mornings."

The new arrivals looked at each other before leaving a heavy sigh of both relief and shame.

"Ok, I don't know what class of entity or cosmic force helped us in this crucial moment," the green haired girl raised her hands to the ceiling "but the only thing I have to say is…thank you"

She finished her own personal prayer before her eyes shined with renew energy. "Oh, by the way, I'm Reese Chloris and my friend here is Nadir Shiko, nice to meet you"

Arlsan was about to roll her eyes, surely the Universe wanted to test her own patient, but she didn't expect nothing like that. Maybe it was her training, but seeing these two people, trying to be the defenders of humanity against the darkness, acting like this was…something else.

"My name is Arslan Altan and…," She resisted the urge to sigh, "I have to agree with my friend, Bolin Hori, about your _luck_. However, you can't count on it from now on."

Nadir nodded shyly in agreement while Reese rolled her eyes.

"She was always like that; I had to save her from situations like these since primary school"

"Well, I had to save your butt too on more than one occasion, like with the incident with the water Dust back at the Calypso Academy, didn't you remember Nadir?" Reese smiled to her friend.

"Don't remind me about, but I have to confess that it was kind of funny at the end" Nadir said while smiling.

Arslan looked at Bolin before returning to the two strange teenagers.

"So, by the looks of you two, maybe you went to the same Combat Academy?" Reese asked with curiosity.

"You are correct on that," Bolin said with a smirk on his face. "The Shaolin Academy is very different from any other one in Mistral"

Both Reese and Nadir made an expression of both surprise and admiration.

"The Shaolin Academy. THE Shaolin Academy?!" Reese screamed in surprise. "That…that is so cool!"

"But, it wasn't between the most exigent Combat Academies in all Remnant?!" Nadir asked with doubt. "I heard that only the best of the best are capable to pass it!"

Arslan simply shroud, occulting her own personal opinions. She didn't like to be praised or being elevated to a pedestal and she didn't gave her a dry look only because it wasn't the time or the place to provoke animosity.

"It isn't that hard," Bolin was taking another attitude. "If you only work hard, wake up on time and don't mess up, anyone could pass the Shaolin Academy"

"Well, you only said it," Reese commented "But, Shaolin, like; the place where the coolest Huntsmen came and can fight an army of Grimm with their own bare hands, without Dust!"

"Yeah, but that's all part of the training," Bolin said without changing his smile. "I was a chump when I entered, and I'm here alive and well"

Arslan ignored the conversation as she was looking at the panels, only to realise that a big figure in the sky was coming closer to them.

"Look, if isn't our lovely ship" Bolin said sarcastically while he grabbed his bag.

Arslan sighed and grabbed her own belongings as the massive aircraft was arriving. When she walked toward the outside, she felt that the others two behind her were following her closely. She didn't pay attention and tough that they wouldn't be such a problem later on.

* * *

Predictably, some hours later on, she could only swallow those words during the initiation in Haven Academy.

It wasn't that nobody knew that the initiation involved real Grimm (it was common that every Huntsmen Academy way to test students in their first day) and that they wouldn't receive any outside help after all.

Some people considered this method a little cruel, as the chances of dying were higher, but the Grimm that the students were forced to fight to pass the initiation weren't of the highest classes and neither their number weren't too. Another obvious thing was that the young teen involved had already trained and involved with Grimm in some way or another, so any tragic deaths during that time were thankfully pretty rare and minimal.

Therefore, Arslan wasn't worried about any of that, the Shaolin Academy way of training was specially harsh, involving things like meditating and fighting in the outside during winter without any class of an additional coat over her robe. It was the same with Bolin. The two of them managed to find the other one rather easily, as they both managed to calculated their landings with only an exchanged of glances. It was the benefit of being of being both friends and trained in the same place during four years and the next four together wans't going to be any different.

"So, we have only to collect the chess pieces and that's it," Bolin said while walking through the forest "Piece of cake"

Arslan simple analysed the terrain in front of her, while Bolin was looking for any Grimm footprints.

"I think some humans came over here recently, another pair, maybe they can guide us towards the relics or…" the young teen was interrupt when he heard something coming after them.

The two of them saw a couple of familiar figures, one of them with a pair of pistols and the other one following it while they were firing their weapons against a black mass coming after them.

"Damn Boarbatusk, we cannot walk two steps and there another pack of them!" Nadir screamed while his face contorted by anger and worry.

"Less talking, more running!" Reese responded.

Arslan and Bolin looked at each other and rapidly jumped to their aid, the dark skinned woman concentrating her Aura to liberate a small shockwave with her palm hitting the ground, sending several Grimm to the air while Bolin unleashed the blades of his staff, cutting through the soulless monsters.

Reese and Nadir stopped as they saw their saviours with awestruck expressions before returning to their fight.

"You guys truly are lucky, isn't?" Bolin said while fighting four Boarbatusks at the same time.

"Well, we appreciate your help, but…," Reese pointed out while dodging the incoming Grimm's attacks "I will prefer to talk after we have done with these pests"

Arslan nodded at her; at least the girl had her priorities right. There were thirty monsters after them and it was better to concentrate in the task of exterminate them first.

Nadir positioned himself in a corner, preferring to take down the monster from the distance, while Reese connected her two guns into a hoverboard that she began to ride it, cutting the incoming monsters with bayonets attached on its ends.

Arslan was occupied with a particular mulish Alpha Leader of the Boarbatusks when another one jumped from behind, as the young teen dodge see the another Grimm jumping to her with her hands literally holding the tusks of the bigger monster. Then, a lucky shoot from Bolin killed the monster. Arslan nodded in gratitude and procced to rip off the tusks of the Alpha and impaled them to the head of its owner, dying instantly.

After a moment, Bolin killed the last one and the four humans took a breath of relief of the short, but intense battle.

"Ok, so…you know where the relic is?" Nadir asked while cleaning the sweat of this face with his elbow "Because that's the third pack of Boarbatusks than I and Reese fought in this morning while we tried to decide between the three paths we should take"

"No, we don't know where it is," Arslan said thoughtfully "But I'm interested about the those "paths" you are talking about"

Reese's face changed into an expression of tiredness. "Well, there is a clear just near over here with paved with three paths on it, Nadir said that we could take the right one but it only lead towards a cave full of Grimm. After killing them of, we took the one central one and the result was almost the same."

"And then, when we returned, ANOTHER pack of Boarbatusks were waiting for us," Nadir sighed, "I know that the initiation is not a walk in the park, but come on!"

Bolin repressed a chuckled while Arslan maintained her neutral expression.

"We could take the only one path that it's left and see if the relics are there, we will accompany you." Arslan said while walking towards the clear with Bolin near.

Reese and Nadir shrugged and followed them. Nobody talked while they walked in the paved path; the four of them being attend about any sound that wasn't produced by their footsteps. After ten minutes of walking, they say a peculiar structure in a clear zone, with big chess pieces on some altars. Arslan stopped first and raised her hand in precaution.

"We have to be careful, there could Grimm preparing to ambush us at the moment we…

However, nothing prevented from Reese to rush with her hoverboard towards the relics while Nadir run after her.

"…walk towards it…" Arslan put her left palm in her face while leaving a heavy sigh. In her training, her teachers always pointed out that NOTHING looked like it was at first glance, but it was too late to apply the same to those two reckless children. Reese took one of the chess pieces while screaming with happiness and Nadir was laughing for the first time since they met him.

"They are like puppies," Bolin pointed out with a smirk in his face "Adorable, running a lot and getting into trouble"

"Please don't do that comparison," Arslan said while watching Reese and Nadir making some kind of celebratory dance "I…will prefer to reserve my opinion of them"

Bolin shrugged as they watched the lively pair dancing, Reese doing twirls with her hoverboard without losing balance as Nadir was awkwardly trying to imitative her, only to fall off to the ground. Her friend left a small chuckle and helped him to get up. The green haired woman screamed to Arslan and Nadir at them to come to them, when suddenly, her expression of joy changed towards one of horror.

At that instant, the pair felt something heavy behind them coming closer rapidly. Their reaction was to simple run towards Nadir and Reese, as the former was shooting against their persecutor. Arslan heard a heavy hiss, and by instinct, she jumped and saw an enormous snake's head hiiting the ground, making chunks of soil flying everywhere.

"A king King Taijitu!?" Reese screamed with anger and fear. Then, with a mighty roar, three Alpha Ursas came from the tress, ready to kill and devour their prey. At the same time, with a thunderous howl, a big flock of small Nevermores came from above, going rapidly to the small group. "Ok, this is the way the Universe way to balance things, isn't?"

Arslan was nervous, they were surround by the enemy by almost every angle, and worst, a little window that she closed long ago was opening again. Images of blood and desolation surrounding the place, alone, all alone…

She closed her eyes for a moment.

" _Don't do it now, you are here now, not there"_ It was her personal mantra

She wasn't in the window's view, she was in the present.

"Bolin, take care of the Ursas!" she screamed to her friend. He nodded and jumped towards the Grimm.

"Nadir, shoot down those Nevermores and call their attention, don't let them go near any of us!" Nadir blinked twice in surprise and rapidly pointed his rifle against the flying monsters.

The second head of the King Taijitu opened its mouth and launched against the dark skinned woman. She dodged gracefully and changed her energy in her fist to hit the other head that also was coming towards her. The tactic worked, but the head only retreat a few inches, and the creature was still alive.

"Reese, I need you here to distract the Taijitu, now!" Arslan shouted.

The green haired woman made an expression of doubt, as she didn't want to abandon Nadir alone against the flock of Nevermores, but the young man gave her a reassuring smile. Reese nodded and came rapidly with her hoverboard. With a visible effort, she floated a few meters ahead of the reptilian Grimm while shouting loudly.

"Hey jackass, do you want some delicious meat to eat!" she said while she gave her own butt a few slaps, trying to catch its attention "Come here you double headed malformation"

They were lucky that this Grimm wasn't particularly intelligent or wise enough, because the two heads lifted their head simultaneously, trying to reach the new prey. Arslan gave a heavy breath and positioned herself, her body, mind and soul working in synchronization.

Meanwhile, Bolin was trying to fight against three enemies at the same time, attacking one Ursa while dodging the other two, while trying to make their own attacks hit their own fellows. However, for Bolin it wasn't the time to have fun with the creatures, if he coudn't dispatch them quickly, things could go ugly. He jumped a few meters from the Ursa and prepared his staff while concentrating his Aura.

" _This will give me a headchead tomorrow…or maybe right now, but it's for the best"_

The three Ursas charged against him at the same time, something that benefited Bolin greatly. A strange yellow light was surrounding Bolin's weapon. Arslan too was being surround by an auburn light while Reese was still distracting the King Taijitu. Then they heard Nadir's scream.

"I did it!" he said while rising his arms "I killed all the Nevermores!"

Bolin smiled as the three Ursas came closer. Arslan was ready for her attack, first by using her red necklace made of fire Dust to create a small fireball, throwing it against the abomination.

"Hey, over here you reptile!" she screamed to the twin snakes.

The Grimm refocused its attention towards the tall woman. Their heads launched at the same time with full force as the three Ursas raised their paws, their claws ready to rip and tear human flesh.

Bolin launched forwards and using the blades of his staff, he attacked the Ursa in the middle, with thee stabs in the throat, killing in it in an instant. Strangely enough, the other two Grimm suddenly had similar wounds and they too died.

At the same moment, Arslan threw a punch with her right powered by her Semblance directly into the dark head of the King Taijitu. Its skull exploded in small pieces and the following white head only managed to saw the small prey using the left hand to finish the job.

With that, the battle was over.

Bolin was the first to left a heavy sigh, followed by a grunt of pain while his left hand was holding his head. Arslan was the first to come to him, holding her friend, her face with a worried expression.

"Are you alright, we know using it can be bad for your head" she simple said with a whisper while Reese and Nadir were coming closer to them

"And that's why I don't use _that_ while is possible, but the situation called it" he simple remarked while giving a weak smirk. "At least they didn't see it" The boy then immediately closed his mouth when the pair were close

"Guys, you were really AWESOME back there," the green haired woman shout while "And..are you ok Bolin?

"Yeah, only a little tired because of the extra effort," the young aspiring Huntsman simple replied "Nothing that a nice nap after this can't cure"

Nadir moved his head with worry, expecting any incoming Grimm.

"I think you still need to take your own relic" he remarked, "It will be better to hurry up, the sooner we finish this, the better"

Arlsan nodded and let Reese to take care of Bolin. She walked towards the structure, grabbed the relic, expecting some sort of trap or another wave of Grimm. After a minute, full of tension, the dark skinned woman left a breath of relief.

"We passed the initiation Bolin, we did it!" she said while her face was a wide smile.

The boy gave a weak thump up while Reese and Nadir did the same.

"So, we only have to wait for the bullhead to come out and…there is it" Reese pointed out the sudden appearance of the ship. They all jumped to the Bullhead, ready to return to Haven Academy.

* * *

"Arslan Altan, Bolin Hori, Reese Chloris and Nadir Hori," the headmaster announced while the rest of the students watched the ceremony. "as you retrieved the relic and demonstrated to be capable enough, from now on, you will be team ABRN"

The four people were in front of the headmaster of Haven Academy in different attitudes. Altan and Hori faces were in a stoic expression while Chloris was excited and nervous and Nadir barely controlled the shaking of his legs.

"Lead by…Arslan Altan!"

The cheers from the students and her new teammates was louder than she liked. Bolin gave a clap in her shoulder while Reese hugged her as she was her new best friend (they wans't, really) and Nadir gave a shy smile.

Arslan sighed, she didn't expected to be a leader and the burden of being one wasn't something that crossed her head during the many years training and preparing to being a huntress.

Regardless, she accepted her new position and duties with solemnity. Truly, the Universe wanted to test her own soul if she was worth it.

* * *

Author Notes: So, did you like it? This is quite a long chapter compared to others I must say...

Anyway, reviews and constructive criticism is always welcomed. See you next update!


	6. Don't be surprised

Yavinus here, this is the sixth chapter of my first RWBY fic, hope you enjoy it! As always, reviews and constructive criticism is always welcomed.

RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth

* * *

"I hate the uniform, seriously, it's so uninspired," Reese complained while team ABRN was walking though Haven Academy's halls after the end of the classes. "At least Beacon's uniform is way better and Shade's are literally "choose whatever you want if isn't too indecent", and the skirt it's too short, I was lucky that I'm using a short because honestly…"

"But it's comfortable enough, I like it" Nadir answered while his parent rolled her eyes. "The only uniform I don't like it's the Atleasian's ones, seriously, white clothes aren't the easiest to clean up, grey and white are a bad combination."

Bolin snorted from the exchanging of his teammates. "I think personally I would prefer my robes than this, although, this is the Academy rules and we have to go along with it we like it or not"

Arslan sighed, it was only the third day after the ceremony and she already was feeling the burden of being a leader.

"As Bolin said, these uniforms are a symbol of the Academy and we have to respect it," she said while guarding her own commentaries. Truly, she agreed with Reese with some points, the skirt was too short for her taste and the she rarely used shorts, but in this situation was necessary. "We have to perform some sacrifices in our way in life to accomplish things"

Reese sighed and shrugged, if she wanted to be a huntress, a stupid uniform wouldn't stop her, even if she was obliged to use it for four years. At least she wasn't alone in her suffering.

"So, what are we going to do today?" Nadir said while checking her scroll. "We don't have homework to do today and we have plenty of free time…"

"We could go the arcade!" Reese suggested whit clear excitement in her eyes.

"Or...we could train together and test our abilities" Arslan said while giving a serious glance to the green haired girl "We still don't know the full capabilities of each other since the initiation, so it will be better to took this opportunity and improve our own group strategies with sparring matches between each other"

"Aww, but we already did a lot of exercises yesterday," Nadir said with a tired expression. "Can we at least do it tomorrow?"

"No," Arslan answered drily "We have to do it today or not, laziness and pride are two of the greatest mistakes we can commit as huntsmen, don't forget it"

Both Reese and Nadir sighed in resignation and the group went directly to the lockers to change their uniforms and take their weapons. They were lucky that the training grounds were free to use, maybe because almost everyone took the free time as leisure and not sharpening their skills. After the warming-up, the team stood in the combat arena.

"Ok people; listen up, the matches will first between me and Reese, followed by Nadir and Bolin." Arslan said while the last two mentioned stood aside and the green haired woman was now in front of her team leader.

"So before fighting, I wanted you to show your Semblance," the leader of ABRN pointed out. "Mine is physical enchantment beyond normal capacities an Aura user can achieve, what is yours?"

Reese breathed and positioned herself concentrating her Aura. After some seconds, her feet left the ground and she seemed to levitate, even over a few inches. Arslan raised an eyebrow in front of this demonstration.

"This is my Semblance, gravity manipulation," Reese explained for a few moments before returning to the ground. "But I only managed to do levitate a few meters, but I can make objects than I hold heavier or lighter, generally the latter"

"But, that hoverboard that you use, it's uses gravity Dust isn't?" Arslan asked

"Well, because of the very nature of my Semblance, I have a great affinity with that particular type of Dust, so…" Reese grabbed her "weapon" from her back and used to ride it, now being more comfortable with it. "I prefer to use this."

"I see," Arslan concluded. Then, she positioned herself into a combat position. "Let's see how well you can perform"

The green haired woman was the first to attack, launching herself towards the team leader. Arslan dodged the incoming attack easily, but Reese didn't finish yet and with a sudden twist with the hoverboard, tried to hit her opponent with the aid of the momentum. However, the leader was capable to predict this and raised her arms to cover herself. The hit was strong, but not something that Arslan wasn't accustomed.

The team leader launched a punch towards Reese who reacted rapidly and used her hoverboard to protect herself from the attack. The green haired girl was sent though the air, but she didn't tried to stop the falling. Instead, Reese transformed her vehicle into two pistols with bayonets and shot. Arslan dodged the bullets with a series of backflips while Reese tried to assemble her guns.

Then, the sound of someone's butt hitting the ground was hear in the entire place. Reese was holding her rear with an expression of pain, while Arslan face was one of surprise and with a lack of words. Bolin's face was between worry and amusement and Nadir was trying hard not to put his right palm into his face.

"Not this again" he said with a heavy sigh.

The leader of team ABRN blinked twice before talking.

"What…What was _that_?!" she asked with a very obvious angry one.

"Eh…it was my special technique the "falling tree"," Reese explained while she recovered from the sharp pain "But I still can't get it right, you know?" the green haired girl finished with a nervous chuckle.

However, Arslan didn't took very well, as a vein in her head was slowly appearing and one could sense the effort in her face in not to explode in fury.

" **Don't…do…that…again,"** she said slowly, with every word as heavy as a boulder **"It…was…reckless..unnecessary"**

"But, it's cool and useful," Reese tried to argue. "I mean, I still have to improve it, but when it's done, it will be epic!"

" **NO!"** Arslan loosed all composure. "For all instances, in a real fight, you're already dead! Doing a technique that you couldn't even managed to dominate in the first place it's a death sentence!"

Her voice echoed in the entire place, while picking up the attention of the few other students that were walking casually.

"But…but…," Reese tried to talk, but her face was lock in a surprised expression. "I can still fight"

"Maybe, but you already lost in my eyes," Arslan say while she left the arena. "Now we have to see Nadir and Bolin performance"

Reese nodded slowly while she walked with her eyes in the ground and let herself fell in a bench The leader sighed, it was harsh pointing out these mistakes that way, but necessary if the team wanted to progress.

Nadir face was stuck in a nervous expression, seeing his friend in that state. But Reese gave a shy thump up, indicating that all was alright. The young man sighed, of course, she would be all right, but in the other hand, her pride was hurt again.

"So Nadir," said Bolin while holding his wooden staff. "What is your Semblance?"

The pink haired teen was trouble by this question, his face expressing openly his feelings, "I don't know, really. Since I had my Aura unlocked, I couldn't find my own Semblance"

Bolin cooked his head, and turned his eyes to Arslan, who shrugged. Then, the young man smirked back to Nadir.

"Well, if I have to say…," Bolin teased. "I don't have mine's either, so we have something in common"

Nadir nodded, not sure about it. Arslan sighed profoundly and Reese looked at her with curiosity, before turning her eyes in the match.

The young man with the staff launched himself first, while Nadir responded with some shots from his weapon. But Bolin's reflexes were better and he managed to dodge the bullets, while sprinting against his foe. Nadir knew that he couldn't continue using the same tactics, so, he transformed his rifle into a black sword. Bolin smiled and lifted his staff, attacking Nadir using his weapon's blades.

The clashing of metal against metal was heard, a beautiful spectacle of two person fighting and testing their skills. The man with the staff was attacking in fast and quick movements, while his foe was blocking them .However, Bolin's ability in melee combat was clearly leagues above Nadir's, as the latter disarmed him with a rapid maneuver. Then, he procced to hit his defenceless with precise hits, with in the chest and another in his back using the only the wooden parts of his staff.

The duel was over, and Nadir was in the ground, groaning for the pain, even if he wasn't wounded thanks to Aura. But Bolin offered a hand and helped him to get up.

"You did well, but I see that your main strength is fighting on long ranges" Bolin noted him as Nadir was cleaning the dust in his clothes "Arslan and I could help you in that"

The pink haired boy left a nervous chuckle a gulped with this statement. Truly, their way to be huntsmen would be a looooooooog one.

* * *

"I can't believe it," Reese said while she was resting in her bed, too tired to even changing her clothes. "It's the sixth time this week that she takes us to those "special courses"…my back it's still hurting like hell, and don't even begin with that rope dart…"

It has been only five days since Arslan said that she would forge their bodies, clarifying that their performances was still not good enough for the level required. Even if they survived the initiation and passed it with flying colors. Since then, immediately after classes, they always had an extra hour of training, consisting in parrying matches that resulted in groans and rolling eyes in the skulls of their owners.

"Yeah," Nadir said. "I think she could slow down a little, but I think that you should stop trying that "falling tree" of yours, don't you think?"

Reese responded him by throwing a pillow to his head.

"Shut up, you know it will be awesome, you know it"

The boy muffled a little before throwing the pillow back to her owner. They were lucky that Arslan and Bolin weren't in the room at the moment, still in the showers. She always hates when people were talking past the midnight, saying, "Their bodies had to rest the necessary hours, otherwise, the lack of sleep would only hinder their abilities".

"So, you would tell her to stop beating our asses and not being so harsh?" Reese said while trying to remember their first encounter with the Shaolin's students "I mean, I don0t hate her, but I think she's exaggerating a little…"

"I prefer not to provoke the lioness, so, no thanks" Nadir responded "Maybe she would calm down after a month?"

Reese shrouded while sighing heavily "I'm not counting on that one, that's for sure"

The pair finished their conversation, trying to remain all the energy lost that day. After some minutes, the rest of the team arrived, already in their sleepwear that consisted in a simplified version of their usual combat clothes. They didn't talk about the day today and went to their beds directly. The only sounds now were the slow breathing of Team ABRN.

Unfortunately, one person couldn't sleep and Reese cursed her brain for no letting her rest a moment. Maybe because she was thinking too much about the events of the last days, or how her parents deal it with her absent. Not too much, that's for sure, they have always been very supportive of her and she had a lot freedom. Not of the uncaring parents or the ones that generated brats that went through life as if they were kings or something.

In the other hand, Nadir's parents were…odd, nice people, but odd. Their strange hobbies like their gallery of modern art, a collection of weird statues and the bizarre chimeras made through taxidermy was the reason she had those strange dreams after she visited their house for the first time.

Regardless, their families had a good relationship and life was generally nice. One day, she and Nadir decided that they would become huntsmen and their respective families were proud of them, when others could have reacted with doubt or even fear.

" _And talking about families…,"_ Reese thought while her eyes were watching the team leader's bed _"How about hers anyway? Maybe if she could be more talkative"_

Of course, being the extrovert that she was, Reese already talked about her family with Arslan and Bolin, only the surface, about how her father working in designing ships and such and her mother a medic and such. Nadir didn't say much, only that both his parents were artist and didn't dig into the juicy details.

Only Bolin demonstrated to be being mildly interested while Arslan was…not apathetic, but surely the green haired teen saw that she wasn't very interested in that. She only knew her new boss a week, but Reese already knew that she didn't like to talk about her personal life by only reading her body language.

However, she was curious about it, even against her own instinct; she wanted to ask her one day about her own past. A very interesting one, that's for sure!

Reese was about to fall to sleep, when a sudden noise only heard by her made her open her eyes. Someone was moving in their sleep and was surprised that Nadir wasn't doing it, but her own team leader. It wasn't violent or even particularly noisy, but just enough for someone awaked to heard it and much more for someone so stoic. Arslan was moving slowly, changing the position her sheets, while muttering about something that the green haired woman barely couldn't catch it.

"Don't…be…is all over there Dad….the forest is beautiful…remember the training… _don't move until they have come…"_

After a few minutes repeating the same words, Arslan stopped and went to her normal sleep, leaving the green haired woman with burning curiosity.

Reese didn't wanted to act as an intruder of private matters, but that strange moment sure it made her very, very curious. Maybe tomorrow she could asked her…

* * *

That day, after finishing classes, Arslan decided, to the rest of the team's surprise, to do a special type of course. Rather than doing the sparring match of the past days, she would introduce meditation techniques to Nadir and Reese.

"It will help to clear your mind of doubts and worries," she explained to them as she grabbed four small pillows to sit upon in. "Now, pay attention to me and Bolin"

She and Bolin both sat in one of the pillows, crossing her legs and putting her extended palms in her knees.

"Now, close your eyes and breathe slowly, clear your mind of any distractions"

Reese and Nadir exchanged a glance and tried to do the same. The sitting part was easy, the breathing too, but clearing your mind was a little more difficult. Calypso Academy's way of training was more straightforward, more concerned about the combat aspects and some basic mental exercises apart from the typical studies like mathematics and physics.

For Nadir it was hard because every time he was in his own mind many memories flashed through his head. Like the time people in his class were laughing at him in the first day he appeared with his hair dyed with pink , or worst, that night when he was a child and wanted to go to the bathroom at night, only to stumbled with one of the "statues" that his parents created. He immediately made it right there and only told this embarrassing incident to Reese. She was a good friend and she didn't laugh at him when she heard the story.

In the other hand, to Reese it was almost impossible trying not to think about something, maybe some new move, making some advancements with her Semblance or just thinking on playing her favourite videogame.

After an hour, Arslan opened an eye to see how her team members were doing. Bolin was normal as always, being accustomed to it, but Nadir was sweating, his position very stiff while Reese was trying very hard not to fall to sleep.

The leader of team ABRN sighed, they were good students and combatants but they seriously needed more of this to reinforce their minds and spirits if they wanted to success.

She clapped her hands once, concluding meditation. Nadir and Reese almost left a yelp of surprise and Bolin tried not to chuckle from their reactions.

"Very well, we will continue doing this tomorrow," Arslan said while walking outside the room "I will take a walk, you are free to do wherever you want until night"

And with that, she closed the door behind her.

Bolin stretched out his limbs while going towards the bed and without saying a word, he immediately began to sleep.

"So, do you want to play some games or what?" Nadir asked.

"No…" Reese said. "I don't know why, but I think I will go with Arslan and talk to her, you can play with Bolin, don't worry, I will be fine"

Bolin simply shrugged "Why not, it will be fun"

Reese went out of the room, seeing her team leader still walking in the long hall. She shouted her name as she run to her.

"Do you want some company?" she asked awkwardly "We could talk about staff, you know"

Arslan looked at her with curiosity as she walked as her teammate followed her closely. After a few minutes, they were at the outskirts of the Haven Academy and they saw other students were enjoying their leisure time.

Reese was a little nervous about the topic of her choice, maybe if it felt rushed.

"So…how are things at home, do you miss your family?"

The leader of team ABRN took her time before responding.

"Not so much, I can take care of myself and my uncles know that"

Reese cocked her head.

"You uncles?" The green haired woman "What about your parents?"

Reese noted that Arslan's face twitched unwittingly.

"They…died in a work accident when I was a child, I didn't know them very well to be honest"

Reese eyes got wide with surprise and her cheeks blushed with shame.

"I'm so sorry about that," She said while she swore herself to the end of the world for being so stupid.

Surprisingly enough, Arslan game a small smile, indicating that there wasn't anything wrong.

"It happened a long time ago, don't worry, life is just like that sometimes"

"Well, if that's so…," Reese said slowly "And why do you decided to be a huntress?"

"To protect people," Arslan answered almost immediately "This world is dangerous and only a few can face the darkness, and why did you decided to be one?"

"That's interesting, you see…," Reese explained, "When I was child, I met this awesome guy who was huntsman and the father of one my classmates. I and Nadir always loved to hear his adventures…"

"So, you were inspired by him?"

"Basically, yes" Reese said with a small smile "But also, helping people and being and hero…is awesome and the world definitely needs more people like us"

But for both of them, there were other reason apart of them. Reason that they wouldn't speak for the moment.

"Hey, about the training…" Reese said, "I think we should slow down a little, only a suggestion"

Arslan raised an eyebrow.

"Do you mean that I should go easy on you?"

The green haired teen waved her hands nervously.

"Not like that, I mean, that we should try to be a little more…patient? Less painful?" Reese began to sweat as she continued, "I mean, you are awesome and that, but I believe that you could be critical of us without being so harsh."

For her surprise, Arslan sighed and put her hand in her head.

"Yeah…I think I went I little overboard with that, while some of your ways are definitely flawed, your fighting skills are on point and with a little reinforcement you could be better," she explained while watching the sunset, "To be honest, I think that I took the role of leader too much"

"Well, I think that we're all a little nervous, don't you think?" Reese said with a small smile, the girl always found the way to see the positive things in life "But if we take things with a more relaxed attitude, we could be the most awesome team in Haven!" she finished with enthusiasm.

"But why do you say awesome all the time anyway?" Arslan tried to understand, "It's not the type of word that I should use to measure one's quality"

"Come on Arslan," Reese said with a smirk "Bolin is pretty much cool and you two came out from the same Combat Academy, you could try to be a little like him"

"Don't dream about" Arslan said with a mocking tone, "It could be the end of me, you know it."

Reese giggled, as it was the first time that her leader was acting in a joking manner since they met. Then, her eye catch two students walking towards them, one with blue hair and another who was definitely a Faunus as his tail in his back delated him.

"So, they are the two, isn't?" The blue haired one asked to his teammate.

"Yes, I heard from the headmaster." The Faunus answered.

Both girl raised their eyebrows and looked with curiosity the new arrivals.

"Sorry, what are you talking about?" Reese asked to the blue haired teen.

The young man cleared his throat before speaking.

"You see, we were talking about how beautiful you two are," he said with a smile on his face, while his teeth shined, "And my charming ways could conquer your hearts"

Arslan face was stuck between being dumbfounded and scepticism, while Reese hawked.

"I saw you two on the ceremony, Neptune Vasilias and Sun Wukong, isn´t?" the dark skinned woman asked while ignoring the flirting from the Neptune, "By the way, I think that it was something more important"

"Yes indeed," Sun said, "I heard from some professors about something related with the Vytal Festival."

"Really?" Reese was clearly curios while Arslan was cautious "What is it about anyway?"

"You see…," Sun began to explain with a small smile on his face, "I think that they were discussing about choosing a first year team as a representative team of Haven Academy, and this lucky group could go to Beacon Academy before the end of the first term"

Reese and Arslan exchanged looks of surprise.

"And…what team they would choose anyway?" Arslan asked, "There was some sort of condition or something?"

"And that's the part things goes interesting," Neptune said with the typical tone of some TV show game.

"I believe that the first team that managed to get the relics in this year initiation could be the chosen one"

* * *

Nadir was with Bolin while their respective partners were outside.

"Do you want to play some games?" Nadir asked to Bolin, who shrugged.

"Yes, but I'm not very good at them, you know," he said while stretching his arms "But I think I could learn something new"

Both students grabbed their scrolls and turned on the TV screen while Nadir selected a fighting game.

"So, you never played one?" Nadir asked.

"Nope" Bolin said while selecting a character, "But I saw people playing before, so…"

"No problem, I will teach you."

After some minutes of explanations and instructions, their virtual avatars were already fighting each other to a non-permanent death. Nadir was good on it, but Bolin was already catching on very quickly too.

"So...about you and Reese, you two seem very…united," Bolin suddenly commented, "Do are you two in some very close relationship?" He concluded with a smirk on his face.

"No," Nadir responded, for Bolin's surprise, very calmed. "I mean, we're close friends and such, but we aren't, you know, like boyfriend and girlfriend."

"I see"

"And what about you and Arslan?" Nadir asked while his character was trying to block the incoming attacks of his virtual foe "How did you met her, anyway?"

"You see, we only met her in the Shaolin Academy" Bolin began to explain, "My very first real interaction with her? Well, my ass being kicked by her"

"Seriously!?" Bolin exclaimed.

"Yeah, you see, it was my fault, I admit" the young student smiled with nostalgia, "I was a chump, I wanted to prove that I was the best and one couldn't stop me. Then, when this little girl was defeating everyone else in the Academy and I wanted to test myself and humiliate her"

"And then the tables turned" Nadir deduced.

"Yep," Bolin closed his eyes for a moment, "More like I was turned upside down and my head hit the hard ground. Aura or not, that moment was painful as hell"

"I'm imagine that," Nadir commented, "And then you became friends like that?"

"Not right off the bat," Bolin continued, "But a certain relationship began to form, from "I kicked your ass" to "Now we will try to understand each other a little better", and the rest is history"

"I see…"

"And Reese and you?" this time Bolin asked. His character health was low, but it was compensating it by using some special tactics that made Nadir's virtual avatar be cornered.

"Well, pretty normal, we met in primary, then later we met this huntsman guy and we both decided to be hunters ourselves, pretty typical" Nadir said rapidly, while trying to make a special combo

"So, nothing exciting?"

"Nope," Nadir tried to win the game against some lucky amateur, "But I'm curious about something else, I mean, I wanted to be a huntsman to protect people against darkness, but what is your motivation?"

This time though, Bolin took his time. Their fight in the game was almost finished, then, Nadir's character defeated his foe with a rapid attack, the letters "TOTAL ANNIHILATION" appeared in the screen.

"I wanted to test myself," Bolin said with a small smile. "Apart from protecting people, I want to prove my worth in the world, that's all you need to know"

"Huh, curious," Nadir said while thinking about himself.

Before any of the two could say something else, the door of their room opened, as Reese and Arslan went into it.

"So, did you two enjoyed the walk?" Bolin asked with a smile and then his face turned into an expression of curiosity as he saw the excitement of Reese eyes and Arslan's full of determination, something that didn't happen frequently.

"Guys…I think you wouldn't believe this," Reese said, "I mean, like, really, really awesome"

"I think our team will be honoured with something great" Arslan commented while she held her scroll.

"What do you mean?" Nadir began to ask when the sound of his scroll receiving a message was hear, as whit Bolin's.

"You will see" Reese said whit a wide smile.

In the four screens of the scrolls a new message.

" _Congratulations team ABRN,"_ the mail read. _"You were chosen to be part of the new interchange program"_

* * *

Author Notes: Yeah, surpirse ending, isn´t? As you can see, this fic would be the base for another one, a semi-au fic where these teams would be more prominent in the main plot of the series, it's an idea than was in my head for some time until now. So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and as always reviews are welcomed. See you next update!


	7. Comet (Nebula Violette)

Yavinus here, now we begin with team NDGO and their first member, Nebula Violette. Hope you enjoy the chapter and, as always, reviews and constructive criticism are welcomed.

RWBY doesn't belong to me but to Rooster Teeth.

Also, I dedicate this chapter to Monty Oum, may his soul find peace.

* * *

" **Little star, shy light**

 **Little star, shy guide**

 **Little star, don't be afraid**

 **Little star, don't be shy**

 **Little star, shining light**

 **Little star, shining guide"**

* * *

It was a beautiful night; the stars could be saw in the sky. Even the cold of the arid region during those hours didn't bother the tall girl sitting on the rock with a lamp on her side. A few more meters, a motorcycle was standing, waiting for her owner to return to it. She was admiring the stars, as she always did since she was a little girl. For some people, the desert was particularly unnerving during the night, the lack of sounds and the general emptiness of it made people nervous and it didn't help that the only light that the sky provided was from the broken moon.

But for Nebula Violette, it was beautiful and calming, it made her mind relax and to think with clarity. She always loved the starts, brilliant and the same distant, capable to guide people since the beginning of time.

" _One day I will be like one"_

She observed the stars for another minute and then, she stood herself and extended her hand, concentrating her Aura. A small white light appeared from her palm, brilliant and yet so small. She tried to concentrate to maintain its form. Then, she formed another light with her another hand, her face was contorted by the visible effort, but she didn't hesitated for a second, even if her hands were trembling.

She accumulated power into the shinning orbs, and then, in a rapid movement, she made clapped her hands above her head, combining the two lights. There was an explosion and many small lights travelled through the desert, some going to the ground, provoking small craters and others went to the sky, trying to reunite with the stars but soon enough, they faded into nothing.

Nebula fell to the rock, breathing heavily for the effort while she smiled remembering that this test of her power was much better than other occasions. It was hard for her, even after years practicing; she had still some problems controlling her Semblance in its offensive ways.

She formed another "star", this time with less Aura input on it, using it as a source of light rather as a weapon. The light illuminated the place much better than the lamp at her side.

The young girl grabbed her sword, the final gift of her grandfather. She swung it with familiarity, with care and with passion; every movement was made with a purpose. Nebula got accustom to its weight and length. It didn't possess any sort of advanced technology, it could only transform into a crossbow and nothing more, but for her, it was enough.

When she saw the blade shine through the light, she remembered that the sword that his grandfather used didn't have any class of rust or dullness even after all those years of use. Maybe it was for its special alloy or maybe just inherited the will of its previous owner.

She wanted to be a huntress since she was a child and heard the tales of his grandfather, protecting people from darkness and fighting for a brighter future. They inspired her and she wanted too to inspire people. Even if she could suffer from an injury like the one he did, even if she could die, she wanted to become an inspiration for people.

She promised herself to follow his same path; it was something that she decided years ago. She enlisted herself into a Combat Academy, and with the permission of her parents, she took grandfather's sword, "Shooting Star".

After that, she succeeded in all classes, made herself stronger, managed to kill her first Grimm. However, at the beginning of her final year, her grandfather passed away. He was old, but still, his death was something that hurt her heart, much more when she couldn't be by his side.

Regardless, she continued despite all. Moving forward no matter what.

She imagined herself fighting against the enemies of humanity. An enormous Ursa tried to kill her with its enormous paws, but Nebula managed to dodge its attack, and with a swung of her sword, she decapitate it.

She didn't stood still as a beowolf jumped to catch her throat, but luckily, the young aspirant huntress transformed rapidly her sword into its crossbow form and shoot a small arrow of light, killing the monster instantly. She smiled with pride; it was the only offensive technique that she could use using her Semblance that she managed to master. It was useful and practical and she didn't have to depend too much on Dust.

Soon enough, her own mental vision vanished when a question appeared in her head.

" _I will be good enough?" S_ he though herself. _"I will be able to guide people?"_

It wasn't the first time that happened, even in the middle of victory and success, she doubt herself many times if she was capable of becoming a successful huntress, much less being an inspiration for people.

" _One thing is dreaming of it, another is making it a reality"_

Years of training, encouragement and self-improvement weren't enough to silence these questions. It was perfectly normal to have them, of course, but another one it was dreaming with these corrosive whispers every night. Nebula remembered the day of her final exam, when she was a nervous wreck. It did took a lot of self-control to maintain her composure during that moment.

" _One day, I will be able to surpass this emotions…then, my path will be clear"_

Then, with the sound of broking crystal, she undid the small star in the air and the only light close to her was from the lamp and the cosmos above her. It was time to go back home, maybe she could watch a movie tonight with her little brother. When she started her bike, the motor vibrating her body softly, she realized something.

" _But it's only the beginning after all," S_ he though. _"After all, life is full of surprises…well then, I will not leave my dreams so easily"_

She was moving forwards, knowing that even if the sun and the broken moon disappeared and the darkness came, the stars would guide her.

* * *

Author Notes: So, what do you think? Like you have seen, I took some liberties on the character, mainly her Semblance. Of course this is innevatible because of her own condition of side character, but I tried to do a cool one that coincided with her "cosmic" theme that she has. Also for those who doesn't know, some aspects of her power are inspired by the spell "A Call Beyond" from Bloodborne (that game is awesome, even if I couldn't play it personaly, damn my lack of money and time) go watch in Youtube to visualize more or less the way that her Semblance works.

As always, reviews are good as also feedback, they are neccesary for a story to grow up naturally and it would be helpful if they are detailed and constructive.

See you next update people!


	8. Whimsical Wind (Dew Gayl)

Yavinus here, this the second chapther of the NDGO arc. Presenting Dew Gayl! Hope you enjoy it.

As always, RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.

* * *

" **Lucky child, born with talent**

 **Lucky child, wielding the wind**

 **Piercing your enemies with ease**

 **Conquering the skies, a queen of breeze**

 **How far your luck will help you?**

 **How far the wind will carry you?"**

* * *

It was hot, the air lacked of humidity and the earth was dry. The vast area only composed of a few trees and the occasional animal life was taint by the presence of a small human establishment. The village composed for a few houses and big vehicles almost everyone was inside and not for the climate, but of something more violent.

However, there was only one person outside, a young girl holding her weapon with air Dust embedded in its spearhead. She had blonde hair and a beautiful green dress surrounded her figure. However, by her expression, she was visible bored, eager that something exciting happened

The day was hot, common for Vacuo, but for Dew Gayl it was something she disliked greatly, even if she was born in the Kingdom. With a wave of her left hand, a big gust of wing came to her direction, bringing some relief.

" _Certainly my Semblance helps a lot for this"_ She though, _"But not for those guys_ …"

She saw a cloud of dust coming to her direction, people who growth up in those regions knew that it wasn't a sand storm but a group of vehicles going through the arid ground. A group of twenty people were riding their motorcycles towards the village and they stopped in front of Dew.

Their aspect wasn't comforting at all. They carried weapons and rifles and their faces showed expressions of hostility. Their leader, a tough woman that wielded long chains that ended up in a dangerous looking hook as a weapon.

Dew smiled, the bastard came after all, and the villagers didn't lied about them after all. They were a motorcycle gang that went from village to village to force them for payment for their "protection" against of the Grimm. Of course, it was all a lie for anyone with to brains. They weren't professional huntsmen and the zone that they operated was generally pretty clean of any soulless abomination.

In short, they were a bunch of bullies that took advantage of scared villagers and the Dew only came by coincidence because she considered the place a good one for practice before she went to Shade Academy. Dew already finished her final exams with ease and without worries, she understood her Semblance, her ability to manipulate the wind, like the palm of her hand. She took the week before the initiation for a short trip. Her parents were proud of her and let her go, thinking she could take care of herself without worries.

When she went to pass the night in the local inn, she heard about the gang as they would try to force them to take their gains, even of the didn't have much left to pay and Dew decided to take the problem by her own hands.

One reason was for compassion and another one was to test her own abilities in a real battle. Maybe they could provide more entertainment than a bunch of low level Grimm.

The leader of the gang looked at Dew and spit in her direction, the thick saliva landing near her feet.

"And this all the opposition?" She said while laughing, "They though that they could handle us with a model? Sorry pretty lady, but here the stronger survives and rules, that's the way of the world.

Dew sighed; she didn't need to comment anything to them. With only one look, she knew that they were all weak and pathetic. She bet that no one, not even the leader, had their Aura unlocked.

The young girl didn't say anything, and instead, she simply raised her spear and with a circular movement, she made three tornados that went against the group. The gang barely manage to react, as many of them went flying away by the powerful gust of winds. However, their leader had better reflexes as she used her chain to hold herself into a post while her henchmen were blow up away

Finally, the sand settle down and only Dew and the Gang Girl were standing.

"Did you say something about strength?" Dew said while smirking "I have to agree though, only the strongest will prevail in the end…"

Before she finished talking, Dew was interrupt by the incoming chain. She reacted faster and blocked the attack with her spear, but as soon as the two metals clashed with each other, Dew felt a sudden rush of pain in her arms, like if hundreds of fire ants were biting her, almost dropping her spear.

" _What the hell!? The attack wasn't powerful enough and my Aura is still active!"_

The Gang Girl smiled and attack again, this time aiming for her foe's head. Dew raised her spear, this time letting the wind deflect the attack. The pain in Dew's arms disappeared as soon as came, but the young aspiring huntress realized something.

" _It's her Semblance, she posses Aura!"_ She though as she dodged the next attacks, _"It must be something related with pain and she can extend her power through her weapon"_

Dew decided to avoid any physical contact with her enemy and instead began to form another tornado, trying to blow up the enemy through the air as she did with the Gang Girl's henchmen.

But the criminal was fast and soon her chain grabbed Dew's spear. The pain surged this time like fire consuming her flesh and Dew suppressed a scream of pain, trying to resist the sensation.

" _Is not real, don't lose your mind, don't lose it, don't lose it…"_ The young girl repeated to herself while trying to resist.

"That's it?" the Gang Girl repeated while laughing, her voice resonating in the scared village "So much talk and now you are weeping like the child like you are! Give up and maybe you could only be a toy for my boys to play"

Dew then raised her head, looking at her enemy, but not begging for mercy, but rather with a mocking smirk. Before the Gang Girl could react, Dew jumped herself, impulse by the wind that she controlled with her feet and with it; she generated another powerful gust, knocking down her enemy rapidly.

And with that, the battle was over, and for Dew, it was too easy. She walked to her unconscious enemy, claiming her reward, as Dew took her reward in the form of the lien that her enemy had. For the aspiring huntress, she didn't understand why the villagers didn't contacted with some competent bounty hunter rather than leaving a young teen dealing with her problems.

But well, she had an extra cash and more combat experience, so, thing went well in the end. It was time to return home and prepare for her future ahead.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** So this is the new chapter, hope you have enjoy it as me writing it! Reviews and constructive critisism are always welcomed, they help a story to be improved and grown up. So, see you next update and take care.


	9. Beyond the Darkness (Gwen Darcy)

_Yavinus here, with a new chapter, presenting Gwen Darcy. Hope you enjoy! And remember reviews and constructive criticism is always welcomed._

 _RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth._

* * *

" **Dance, my little child**

 **Dance, dance, dance**

 **Even after you lost**

 **Your innocence long ago**

 **Dance, dance, dance**

 **Until the end**

 **Until all is consumed"**

* * *

The room was white, illuminated by many light bulbs. However, the place wasn't completely void and one could see many figures simulating monsters and a small dark figure, looking at the dummies that were painted in black with white faces.

The only person in the room, a young girl in dark purple and grey clothes with armor tassets. These had many thin holes with it, useful to hold small objects with ease. Then, the sound of an alarm it was hear in the room and the young girl breathed and exhaled.

In an instant, she moved her hands and took three knifes with each one from her tassets and threw them to the dummies with great precision, as the weapons managed to hit in their vital parts.

Their eyes.

Their throats.

Their hearts.

Of course, they didn't bleed, but it didn't matter for the young girl, as she continue throwing more knifes to the rest of the dummies until she run out of them. Then, another alarm was hear and rectangles of the immaculate white floor suddenly opened, a black void that soon enough was occupied by four Grimm (all of them Beowolfs), or rather, drones that simulated them.

The robots growled with their mechanical voices and they launched towards their foe, but the small girl didn't flinch for a second, and rapidly, she ran towards the dummies and extracted the knifes in them in quick succession. A fake Grimm tried to grab her right leg, but managed to dodged, bending it with grace before she threw three knife to his chest. With a myriad of electrical sounds, the fake monsters convulsed and then stopped working, falling to the ground.

The others droids didn't stop at the sight of their fallen comrade, as they began to attack on an artificial frenzy state at the same time. However, the young fighter simply began to dodge the attacks with dexterity, flexing her body rapidly, while the claws of her enemies tried to hit her body in vain.

For anyone who watched the fight, it looked like a deadly dance between mortal foes, coordinated and beautiful, with the grace of many years of training and discipline.

Finally, the young girl, with a rapid succession of hand movements and many knifes thrown at the same time, she ended the fight.

Another alarm was hear, indicating the end of the training section.

"Well done Miss Darcy, your teacher would be proud of you" a masculine voice suddenly came "Do you want some refreshment?"

Gwen Darcy sighed while she put her knifes in her tassets. She saw that the door of the training room opened, a butler of indeterminate age holding a silver plate with fruits and a glass full of water.

"No thanks, I will only drink water," the young teen said while she grabs the glass and drink it with her heart content.

"Also, congratulations with your assignation to Shade Academy, you deserve it," the butler said while he smiled. "I believe that Mr and Mrs Darcy too would be also happy"

"Yes…," Gwen said whit a little doubt, her parents weren't at home for the moment and only they would return at late night "Yes, they would…"

She went out from the big room and she covered her face from the natural light of the sun outside, far more brilliant and warmer than the artificial white light. She saw the beautiful gardens that surrounded her while the voices of many birds could be hear from an enormous cage near the place.

Of course, this type of view wans't very common in the Kingdom of Vacuo. Not for the average citizen of it anyways, as being from the Darcy family brought out many benefits and commodities for the young Gwen.

However, Gwen wanted to see what was beyond her comfortable life, she wanted to see beyond the beautiful gardens and colourful songbirds.

She went directly into her room, after walking through many halls with paintings representing the achievements of many Vacuonian warriors and heroes. Her parents always had this great pride for their Kingdom's history and culture.

The bedroom was paint with her favourite colours, purple and black. Her wardrobe was characterize by the big amount of ballet shoes that it had. Ballet was Gwen's favourite hobby, so much that she incorporated in her combat style. Her personal trainer encouraged her in doing it, as it was the use of knifes. Honestly, even the young found the use of knifes rather than an long ranged weapon like a rifle or even a crossbow weird, but it found easier for her with that particular style and even with her Semblance.

She went to the bathroom to take a shower. She filled the bathtub with warm water and enjoyed the sensation of her body being clean off the sweat and the fatigue of the training. She meditated about her decision of being a Huntress, something that even her parents were surprised, even after that horrible night…

Gwen shaken off her head, pushing away the painful memories.

" _It had been years, forget about it! Nothing will change the harsh truth, you have a life ahead, enjoy it!"_ she said to herself, but even after all this years, in certain nights, she still had some nightmares.

Gwen sighed, trying to relax and not to fill her mind and body with stress. She needed to be calm for the initiation in Shade Academy, her new place where she would live and train for four years with others huntsmen and huntresses.

She tried to imagine herself being one of them, fighting the darkness that threated humanity since the beginning of time.

She wanted to protect people, but also, she wanted to see what was beyond all of that, if there was…something more than darkness and death.

" _One day I will find out"_

After that, she went out of the bathtub and dried herself, put her sleepwear and went to take a nap, grabbing her favourite book. When she was halfway through, a sudden though came to her.

" _There will be many people in the initiation…it will be awkward"_

Gwen didn't liked large crowds, even in the big parties that her family did, she preferred to be in a corner and don't talk a lot. Maybe it was a flaw of character, or maybe it was something else. But she preferred tranquillity and quietness, and yet she wanted to be a huntress. If she wanted to be successful, she had to be more open to people.

" _Maybe in the initiation…yeah, that will be better"_

It was the last thing she though before she went to sleep.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** _So, did you enjoy it? If you did, leave a review or comment, they are very helpful. Also, constructive criticism would be appreciate it, it helps a story to be , I announce that because of the exams I will have soon, I wouldn't post any chapters in the following days, but I will continue writing in the few moments of free time I have and I will post the next chapter as soon I finish with the exams. See you next update and take care!_


	10. Divided Flame (Octavia Ember)

_Yavinus here, my fisrt chapter after many days. Hope you enjoy it._

* * *

" **Divided, someone from two worlds**

 **Divided, they wanted her love**

 **Divided, broken, like a toy**

 **But she desired to be a fire**

 **So that nobody would harm her**

 **She desired to become her own flame**

 **She desired to be whole again"**

* * *

The alarm sounded, invading the small room with an annoying sound, screaming so that the young girl in the bed could wake up. However, it was only answer with a small groan while a hand reached for the scroll to turn off the sound. After that, the woman slowly waked up, undressed herself, grabbed a towel and went outside her room. The hall that connected to her room had only four doors, one of them went to the bathroom, her next destination.

She turned on the lights and saw her reflection in the mirror. A young looking woman with a messy red hair without care, tired looking eyes, as if she didn't have enough sleep, , was the thing that she watched and _damn_ , she really looked awful. Also there was definitely a pungent smell of sweat and physical effort invading the bathroom and the source was from the young girl.

" _That because you didn't take of yourself while you prepared for the entrance exam, you big idiot"_ She thought to herself _"Well, at least is over, you passed it and now you can go and become a Huntress, killing monsters and protecting humanity from darkness, having a good pay and some praises, blah, blah, blah…"_

She prepared herself and took a long and so needed shower after many days of studying and training nonstop so that she could at least being able to have a good career. The warm water relieved her much better than the alarm and the announcement of her victory in the arena. And much better were the hugs that she received from her uncles and cousin when she returned to the flat where they lived.

For Octavia Ember, the most mundane things in life were the things that made her happy, not that she didn't appreciate the excitement of combat and the prospect of fighting Grimm and saving people from a horrible death, but all of that were secondary things that came from the job. She only cared for the salary and maybe some class of moral satisfaction.

After she finished showering, she went outside of the bathroom, dried herself and put her clothes. The blue shirt contrasted with her hair, but she didn't care, because for some reason despite her surname and hair color, blue was her favourite's. However, she didn't like dying it anyway, the contrast between them was something that she loved.

Suddenly, the small groan of an animal came from her stomach, reminding Octavia that she had to eat breakfast. The young teen went to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl, put some cereal and milk and ate alone until her uncle Robin entered. He was the common man in the crowd, with red short hair and sleepy eyes, but with a positive attitude in life.

"Good morning Octi," he said with a small smile "How is our little champion, enjoying your banquet?"

A small blush formed in the huntress-to-be cheeks while she continue eating.

"This cereal is much better that the crap called "Pumpkin Pete's," she said while remembering with disgust the aftertaste that the "famous" cereal left in her mouth. " _The cereal of athletes and champions…!"_ she imitated the TV commercial for the product while giving an exaggerated and false smile "Pure bullshit I say, that thing was the reason I spent half an hour in the bathroom"

Her uncle sighed while he prepared his coffee.

"But at least it has Pyrrha Nikos in it," he commented "And you look like her, so I thought that it could lift your spirits"

Octavia left a snort.

"Yeah, that girl can be good, but if even the Champion of Mistral can't improve that Grimm's waste, then nothing can do," she continued eating and then murmured, "Besides…that girl is prettier than me"

"Don't say that, you're beautiful Octi," Robin said while he stroked her hair, "You will be a great huntress"

The young girl didn't say anything, but her smile was enough for her uncle.

After a few minutes of eating and drinking in silence, Robin took his scroll to see something. Then, he left a heavy sigh before he looked to her niece.

"Octavia, I…," he said slowly while thinking of his next words, "The day that you passed the entrance exam, I tried to call my brother to give the good news"

The red haired girl stopped eating her breakfast suddenly.

"And…?" she said with a low voice.

"He answered me that night…he told me that he's proud"

Octavia didn't answered back.

"Also…" her uncle continued, "This morning, your moth…" he stopped for a moment to see the face of his niece twitched for a second, "She too send me a message, she says that she's happy and…she miss you"

"Why she would care?" Octavia said with a tense tone of voice, "Why _they_ would care anyway?"

"They are, I mean, it was hard for you, but…"

"Sorry uncle, but I prefer to not talk about them"

Robin lowered his head while he sighed, he knew too well about the attitude of her niece towards her parents.

"So…did you prepare your things for Shade Academy?" Robin asked, hoping that the question could cheer up his niece.

However, Octavia Ember didn't say anything for a minute.

"All is ready, my clothes, my combat outfit and my sword…" she said slowly "The ship will come the next week, so I will take a break"

She then rose from her chair and went to her room. She went directly to her bed and grabbed her scroll to see if she received any messages. Of course, there weren't any.

" _Typical, they always talk and say that they still love me…"_ Octavia though with bitterness _"At least my cousins of the part of my mother's family are better, but…they didn't want to have problems with their aunt…"_

She didn't want to remember those days, she had too, she had to remind to herself that they didn't think about her as a daughter.

" _Hypocrites, the two of them"_

Octavia sighed as she went to her closet and grabbed a black box that contained her sword. She didn't open the box, but she remembered the day that she made her weapon. Her Semblance was the creation and control of fire, a not very unique Semblance, but she was proud of it and the sword made of fire Dust was perfect for her.

But there was still a problem. She couldn't control very well that type of Dust, even if her own power could theoretically being in synchronization with it. She needed a trigger and and a not little effort to activate it.

It was pathetic, reall. She couldn't even control well her own element. But it didn't even matter for her, she would continue forwards, no matter what, regardless of other's opinions and decisions. She would conquer her own weakness and become something else, something stronger.

She wanted to be a flame of her own, not of others.

She wanted to be her own self.

Her path as a huntress was the way to accomplish that dream.

* * *

 **Author Notes** : _So, did you like it? I hope so. Also, leave a review and constructive criticism if you like it. See you next update and take care._


	11. Indigo

_Yavinus here, sorry for the delay, as I was having some problems with my writer's block and homework. Hope you enjoy this chapter as I did writting it._

* * *

It was a good day, the sky was clear and sun was rising in the sky. Of course, this was the typical day in Vacuo, where the air was dry almost all year and precipitations were scare. But for anyone who was born and lived in the Kingdom, it was a nice day. Even more for the new students that were going to Shade Academy, the place where their dream to become huntsmen could be accomplish.

In one of the many airships that were going to the same destination, Nebula Violette was watching in awe the grand structure that comprehended Shade Academy (even from far away), a place where a the new "shades" for the people threatened of the Grimm around the world could protect them. The purple haired woman barely contained her excitement, trying not to act as the little girl who heard the adventures of an older huntsman around a fire.

 _"_ _Don't let yourself go to much Nebu, if you don't control yourself, you would jump directly into the initiation exam's territories and being killed instantly,"_ the young aspiring huntress breathed heavily and left a sigh, remembering herself to not be so brash. _"Be patient, the time of being a guardian of humanity will come in time"_

After saying goodbye to her family, things were normal for her and she wasn't nervous at all (okay, maybe a little, but that was because the next day will be the initiation) and was accustomed to go alone and deal things for herself. Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone that she knew that was in the ship to talk with it and the ride was getting a little boring for her taste (plus, she needed someone to share her enthusiasm and worries).

Apparently, though, she was the only one who didn't have a conversation group and Nebula didn't know how to integrate into one. However, she saw a peculiar image that called her attention. It was a girl with black clothes and curly black hair that was, honestly, very cute on her. She was smaller than Nebula and was standing in a corner while looked at the windows with a both curiosity and a bit of nervousness.

Nebula recalled her, back when she was waiting in the skyport the girl came with her baggage with two tall and intimidating looking people in black suits (maybe bodyguards?) and they waited with her and almost nobody dear it to go close to her. Maybe she was the daughter of some important family?

When the airship arrived, she went inside of it alone, while the bodyguards tried to go with her, she said something to them and they exchange glances. It was possible that strange girl didn't want them to go with her, and obviously, the Academy wouldn't permit the presence of external bodyguards in their terrains.

Nonetheless, nobody wanted to go close to her and Nebula felt a little bad for her. Maybe some company, even from a strange like herself wouldn't be so bad. With a deep breath, she walked towards the solitary teen.

"Hi there," Nebula said while rising her right hand and gave her warmest smile.

The girl almost yelped when she was took from her own world. She gave a nervous look to the purple haired woman and gave shy "Hi"

"You look pretty alone there and I was the same, so, don't you mind my company?" Nebula said while trying to be the less threatening person ever, "By the way, I'm Nebula Violette, nice to meet you"

The girl blinked a couple of time before giving a bow towards her, trying to be the most polite person eve.

"Greetings Nebula Violette, I'm Gwen Darcy" she said with a small smile.

"Eh…" Nebula was a little confuse by the display of the eccentric girl "No need for so much formalities, we are students after all"

"Oh, I'm sorry about that" Gwen said with a hand in her mouth, while her cheeks blushed.

"Nah, It doesn't matter" Nebula said "We need to relax and rest for today, we need all the energy for the initiation"

Gwen nodded in agreement.

"By the way, from what Combat Academy did you came?" Nebula asked with curiosity "I went to the Oasis Academy, a nice place to train"

The smaller girl didn't say anything for a straight minute before she answered.

"I…I didn't went to a Combat Academy" she said while she played her hair in a finger "I only trained at home with a private mentor…a professional huntress"

"That's…interesting" Nebula said whit a strange look on her face, it was weird that someone who wanted to be a hunter didn't went to a Combat Academy as the formal way. Her training method was a little unorthodox, maybe her parents wanted to keep a close eye on her? That would explain the bodyguards, although they let her go to the path of the hunter. Also, the surname Darcy, it felt a little familiar to her…

Suddenly, the holographic image of a teacher appeared in the ship, announcing the future students that they would arrive to the Academy soon.

"So, ready for a new, exciting four years of training and study?" Nebula asked with a smile, trying to encourage her, and to herself too "It would be great!"

"Yeah…, it would be great," Gwen said, not very secure of herself, something that Nebula could relate.

When the ship landed on the skyport, Nebula and Gwen walked together in the main avenue while talking. Well, it was more Nebula talking for the majority of the time while Gwen only nodded in occasion.

"And then, when this Creep is about to bit my hand, but the dumb monster didn't know that I had a star in my hand and before it could know it, its ugly head exploded like a balloon" Nebula narrated the first time she killed a Grimm back in the day.

"A star?" Gwen asked with curiosity.

"Yes indeed, I can form "stars" which I utilize them in many different ways, it's my Semblance"

"Can…can I see it?" the smaller girl asked, a little shy and nervous, thinking that she was a little too curious.

"Yes sure" Nebula shrugged, she didn't have problems showing her personal abilities to others "Here, let me show you"

The enthusiastic huntress to be formed a small, brilliant star with her left palm, showcasing her abilities to a perplexed Gwen.

"Incredible, with that ability, you could have defeated any foe easily"

"To be honest, I was dead nervous during the fight, but I had enough Aura in me, so I wasn't in imminent danger and a teacher accompany me in that moment," Nebula said while they walked, only to the purple haired girl to run into a standing woman with red hair who was watching her scroll. Nebula couldn't see her in time and Gwen was too distracted watching the beautiful star.

There was a small explosion of light, followed by screams of surprise and bunch of incomprehensible words that sounded like swearing. Both Nebula and the other girl were in the ground, while Gwen helped the former to get up while the red haired girl did it with her own hands.

"What was that!? Are you crazy!?" the young girl shouted while cleaning the dust of his blue shirt "Don't you pay attention where are you walking!? And you broke my scroll!"

The girl raised her hand, showing the broken monitor.

"I'm very sorry about that," Nebula tried to calm down that girl who was livid "Aren't you hurt? I mean, that star wasn't big or powerful but it could have done something to you"

"No, I'm perfectly **fine** " the red haired girl eyes were like two burning embers and the strength of her words made Nebula and Gwen to flinch back "But you can't just walk using those… _stars_ or whatever was that and my scroll was broken because of your clumsiness"

Other students stopped walking and watched the scene with curiosity, Gwen was moving her head from one side to another and without anyone noticing, and she ran away rapidly.

"Gwen!" Nebula screamed her name but she only gave a look to her before she went to the main building, the purple haired girl was about to follow her when she felt the firm (and strangely hot, like more than normal for a human hand) grasp in her left shoulder.

"Not now _star lady_ , you will give the money to compensate me and…" the red haired woman was definitely not going to let her go until all was did, but when she was about to continue, someone else interrupted them.

"This is embarrassing; you are all acting like children," the voice sounded dull and unimpressed "And this the best the other news students can offer, what a shame"

Both girls moved their heads to find the source of that voice and they saw a blond girl, who was one of the onlookers, stepping inside.

"And who gave you permission to listen your opinions right now?" the red haired girl asked with a hostile tone of voice.

"Our rights as citizens, duh" the blonde woman responded while rolling her eyes "Look, right now you are making a scene and if you don't want a teacher to scold you even before the initiation, it will be really shameful"

"I…" the red haired girl was about to protest, but she changed of opinion and rapidly grabbed her baggage and went to the main building while murmuring something.

Nebula mouth was still open; trying to process the situation ended as soon as started and lowered her shoulders and head, leaving a heavy sigh.

 _"_ _Great, you meet a nice person in the first day and ruin the still forming relationship at the same morning, wonderful, really wonderful"_

The huntress to be was about to say to her rescuer, but she was already walking away. Truly, her performance was very low, even before being an official student.

 _"_ _Well, at least I can do something tonight to undone my mistakes…I hope so"_ Nebula though to herself.

* * *

For Octavia Ember, that day was absolute awful. While the airship travel was generally quiet and calm, when the ship arrived to Shade, things went downhill from there, when a stupid girl was playing with her "stars" whit an audience of one tripped over her and made her scroll broke.

Worst of all, it was in the moment she received the message from one of her cousin from mother's part. She only stopped to read, but she couldn't, thanks to a certain clown trying to be a huntress. Right now, she and the rest of the news where in the ballroom, already preparing to sleep. Octavia pull out her Scroll and tried to turn it on, but she couldn't. She sighed, damn show offs, always ruining the day.

The red haired woman tried to localize with her eyes the two women who ruined her day, and then, after some searching, she found them.

The one with purple hair was sitting alongside with the girl with a (honestly, kind of cute) black hair. Both were wearing dark sleepovers and they were talking about something that Octavia couldn't quite understand. Suddenly, the taller girl looked at her and said something to the other one. The former tried to stand up, but was interrupt by her partner who took something from her bag and went instead walking towards Octavia.

When she was close enough, Octavia noted that her checks were blushing and her eyes averted hers.

"Hmm…," the shy girl tried to talk, with her hands in the back "I…I'm sorry for what happen this morning"

Octavia raised an eyebrow.

"I mean…it was my fault, you know, I made Nebula use her Semblance because of my curiosity" she said while she moved her right arm. Octavia looked carefully and saw that her hand was holding a handful of lien. "I think this is enough for your Scroll…and sorry for everything"

Octavia doubted for a moment, while she preferred Nebula to give herself the money, she didn't know if that clown had any and if wasn't her only chance. With a heavy sigh, she grabbed the money.

"Apologies accepted…and please tell your friend to not do something like that again," Octavia said while she packed away the lien.

The shy girl nodded and turned her back, going towards Nebula, when she returned from her steps.

"Oh…sorry if I didn't presented myself, I'm Gwen Darcy, nice to meet you"

The red haired woman took her time to respond.

"I'm Octavia Ember…and please at least alert me the next time" she said and Gwen blinked twice before she left her.

Now Octavia was alone, with a little comfort that at least she could repair her scroll. Still, she preferred for now not to get close to them. Moreover, for some reason, the surname Darcy sounded familiar…

"So, what we do have here?" Octavia heard another familiar voice; one that didn't wanted to hear before going to sleep.

Yep, it was the blonde woman, now wearing a dark green sleepover.

"Why are you here?" Octavia asked with resignation.

"Well, you see, I wanted to be a huntress, so I trained in one of the Combat Academies, then passed the entrance exam and got an invitation to Shade," the tall woman said without hesitation and with a certain joking tone. "By the way, I'm Dew Gayl, nice to meet you"

"And I'm Octavia…" the red haired woman said slowly while her mind though something else. _"Smartass"_

"So, did you see that girl, she's a Darcy" Dew suddenly pointed out.

"And…?" Octavia didn't understand what she tried to say.

"You know, her family used to be the one of the most wealthy and influential in Vacuo…" Dew began to explain "Then, after a series of incidents, they went to be the richest to not so rich"

"Ah…" Octavia tried to remember. "Nope, I don't recall any of that"

"Well, I don't blame, the media barely gives them any attention anymore" Dew said while watching Nebula and Gwen talking "I mean, they aren't precisely poor, but I think they don't have as many properties as in their golden years, for not saying relevance in the world of politics"

"And how do you know so much?" Octavia asked.

"I read it in some books" Dew simply answered, "Honestly; I believe they send her daughter to Shade in an attempt regain some former fame, who knows"

Octavia shrugged, she didn't care at all about the girl family's background honestly and the red haired girl was pretty tired.

"Well, all interesting, but I will prefer to sleep right now, tomorrow will be a very moving day"

Octavia closed her eyes, abandoning herself to the dreaming world.

* * *

While flying through the air thanks to the launching mechanism, Dew Gayl almost giggled while she saw the others participants. With a move of her spear, she began to create a whirlwind that controlled her descent easily. She saw Nebula Viollete a few meters away, trying to have a secure landing.

A sudden idea crossed her mind, and with another spear movement, she created a small tornado that rapidly went towards the purple haired girl. Dew could hear a scream and she smiled mentally. Of course Nebula wasn't in danger at all, in fact, Dew only make her trajectory change, so that the wind user could find her more easily.

Her feet landed the rugged terrain, her hand protecting the light of the intense morning sun. She saw a human form slowly rising from the ground and Dew walked with tranquillity towards it. When she was close enough, she raised her and screamed.

"Hi there! Do you need some help?"

Nebula moved her head and her eyes saw Dew's, now both of them were partners, united for the following next four years.

"Eh, nothing at all…" the purple haired girl cleaned the dust of her combat suit "It just that I was trapped by some air current…you know, the forecast of today said that there wouldn't any…and I guess you are my new partner…"

Dew tried very hard not to giggle, that girl was clueless about what happen, and even didn't account of her wind Dust in her spear, for not to say that it didn't cross her head maybe that wind was the work of someone else Semblance. It was hard to believe that Nebula could be a huntress, but of course, Dew didn't saw the best of her and still didn't have a definitive opinion of her.

"Don't worry about that…" Dew said with a small smile "By the way, I'm Dew Gayl and you must be…?"

"Nebula Viollete" the purple haired woman answered with enthusiasm "By the way, did you saw a girl with curly hair with an armoured skirt over here?"

Dew shook her head "Nope, but I saw her flying close with Octavia when they launched us, the one who screamed at you yesterday"

"Oh yeah, her" Nebula said putting her right hand in her back while laughing nervously "Maybe I should have to apologise to her today, even in the middle of the initiation…but Gwen will be alright with her, I think"

"And why do you think that?"

"Well, she gave her the money and I think Octavia wasn't angry with her"

Dew resisted the urge to roll her eyes; it was a very naïve way to see the current situation.

"Look, we better must find them quickly; I don't think the Grimm would be quite after the sudden apparition of…"

Then, suddenly, they could heard someone screaming behind them.

"Who was that!?" Nebula asked worriedly "It sounded like Gwen!"

"Then we must hurry" Dew said and without hesitation, she dashed towards the source of the scream, followed closely by her new partner.

* * *

Gwen Darcy was nervous.

It was a normal reaction for every student, even if the dancing girl was more nervous with big crowds that with Grimm. She tried to remember her training, only to realize that the only memory that was recalling was the incident of yesterday. The accident, the fight, when she gave to Octavia some Lien and the conversation with Nebula, already felling secure at that person's side.

Then, before she realized, she was launch towards the initiation's terrains. Gwen sighed mentally; she wanted to land at Nebula's side, but her own though distracted her and soon enough, they both went to separate ways. She saw the purple haired girl and the blonde girl that she saw that same morning. For some reason, the latter was doing something with her spear

The daughter of the Darcy's family looked away from the scene, trying to concentrate. Landing wouldn't be difficult, she only had concentrate her Aura and…

"WATCH OUT!" a voice suddenly shouted behind her. She recognized Octavia's voice.

Gwen only had a split second, only to see a whirlwind coming towards her. But it was too late, she was trapped by the rapid wind. She could heard more screaming and then, someone's hand pulling her from small tornado.

Octavia rescued her from the malicious wind, but now both of them were falling without control towards the ground. Gwen saw that the red haired girl raised her sword, pulling the trigger, and releasing a big wave of fire towards the ground. A small explosion occurred, slowing down the fall of the teens. Octavia was the first in landing, without any problems. Gwen was next.

The ballerina tried to land at Octavia's side, only to her left feet to use her rescuer's head as a platform, she could heard a small, but strong "ouch" from Octavia and then Gwen landed in the hard ground.

The smaller girl saw that Octavia was in her knees, grabbing her head, while her eyes went teary.

"Are you alright?" Gwen asked with a worried expression on her face.

Octavia opened her mouth to left a sharply sigh before she stood up.

"You know, I believe I don't have much luck lately," the red haired woman said with a defeated tone. Both girls landed at the shadow of a small rock formation, a nice place in the heat of the day.

"I'm sorry about that," Gwen said with head low.

"Nah, it's alright" Octavia was watching the terrain trying to localize the terrain "So, what about your friend, Nebula? I mean, we're partners for the following four years, but I think you are better with her"

"Eh…" the ballerina tried to answer, "I think she is farther from us, so..."

"Well, better looking for them throu…" Octavia didn't continue, as a bigger shadow covered them both suddenly.

Gwen was the first to scream, as the Deathstalker who was living inside the rock erupted from its nest.

The girls reacted rapidly, Octavia releasing a wave of fire and Gwen throwing three knifes against the creature. However, the Grimm covered its face with its claws, the flames doing barely any damage and the knifes only penetrate the surface of the flesh.

"It's not use!" Gwen shouted, "That Grimm's armor is too thick"

"Yeah, big guy here sure it's tough" Octavia commented, cursing her bad luck.

Both huntress-to-be decided that the best strategy was to run away from the creature and prepare themselves with a better strategy. When they were about to do it, a strange white light with the form of an arrow came towards their direction very fast. The girls tried to dodge it, but they saw that the projectile's objective was the giant scorpion. The Grimm couldn't react in time, and one of its eyes exploded, leaking blood. The Deathstalker screamed and stepped back from the girls.

"Gwen!" Nebula's voice could be hear, as the purple haired woman came into view as Dew followed her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine…" Gwen responded. "But we encounter with little problem"

"Yeah, no kidding" Octavia said sarcastically.

"Hello there Octi" Dew said with an overall out of place tone in contrast with the current situation.

"Don't call me Octi" Octavia said drily, while her eyes didn't took away from the Grimm "Sorry to interrupt your heartwarming reunion, but I believe out little friend is coming back for us"

Indeed, the giant scorpion decided to continue its hunt, now with renovated fury and desire of human flesh.

"I can take care of it easily," Dew said with security "Just step aside and I will deal with it"

Octavia game a look of incredulity to the blonde girl.

"Are you crazy!? You can't deal something like that alone!"

Dew simply smiled, and using her spear, she began to make circular movements. Three tornados formed instantly, and the huntress-to-be send them towards the Grimm. The others three watched with fascination how the tornados combined just under the Deathstalker body, lifting it up violently into a belly up position, displaying its vulnerable parts.

Dew didn't wait for her partners to react, and rapidly jumped towards her for, ready to strike to its heart with her weapon. But she was about to do it, the tail of the scorpion hit her body, flying away again to the rest of the group.

However, Octavia and Nebula didn't waited to the Grimm to return to full force, and attacked simultaneously. One with waves of fire and another with three arrows made of stars. The fire burned the flesh, making it easier to the arrows to penetrate its body. The third projectile managed to hit its heart, killing it instantly.

Octavia didn't waited for the Deathstalker to dissolve completely to scold Dew.

"Did you say something about being able to take care of it easily?"

"Well, I made it easier for you" Dew said without a single worry.

Octavia rolled her eyes and put her palm into her face "And you still try to act all cool and stuff"

"I think you did very well Octavia" Gwen praised her partner "I mean, you save me from that tornado too during the launch"

"Ah, talking about tornados, I was too catched by one" Nebula commented.

"Wait…you too?" Octavia raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it was weird, it came almost from nowhere and…" suddenly, the rest of the group realized something. Three pairs of eyes went towards Dew, who didn't say anything.

"What?"

"It was you!" Octavia shouted, pointing a finger to the blonde woman, "You almost make me and Gwen lost control of our launching, we were lucky that we managed to land safely and not simply losing our entire Aura instantly!"

"Well, I have to confess that the second tornado was an accident but in the end I help you finding a nice partner, and I choose Nebula to be mine so that I could be with someone more competent" Dew gave her reasoning.

The purple haired girl raised an eyebrow, while she was happy to be someone skilful as Dew as her partner, she felt a little offended by the way her partner's choose of words.

"And you are trying to say I'm not competent!?" Octavia now was closer to Dew, a vein marking her forehead,

"I'm not saying you aren't good in combat, I'm saying that you could be better at controlling your emotions"

It was the last straw for Octavia; she raised her sword and was about to Dew with the hilt when Gwen grabbed her arm.

"Please, just…stop" her eyes were looking at Octavia's with mercy. The red haired girl sighed and simply dropped her arm.

"Look, I know some of us are a little nervous," Nebula tried to harmonize the ambient, her voice calm and firm at the same time. "But we must stick together and find the relics, it would be easier and our chances would be higher if go as a team, got it?"

Everyone nodded; knowing that Nebula was right, even if Octavia and Dew didn't wanted to go close to each other.

"Good, follow me!" Nebula waved her hand, indicating that it was time to move up.

They walked forwards, always trying to go at the same direction that the platforms launched them. They barely talked, as Grimm came from time to time, as they were always the weakest.

Finally, after half an hour, without finding any other student, they were close to a big old circular structure inside of a depression. The terrain around it was sandy rather than hard, with big chess pieces on pedestals.

Octavia was about to jump directly towards the final goal, when Dew stopped her by grabbing her shoulder.

"Look, I believe we aren't alone" the blonde girl indicated.

The group watched as the sand surrounding the structure seemed to move, only to reveal part of the body of a Grimm, whose cylindrical body emerged and submerged rapidly, without showing its head.

"A Gut!" Nebula said while her eyes widened "I heard about them, they aren't powerful in the surface, but incredible dangerous in sandy terrains"

Octavia growled and Gwen was in doubt.

"I admit, even this type of Grimm is something I couldn't take it easily" Dew commented. "It would be better if I…"

"No, but doing it as a team would be better" Nebula said, looking at Dew with determination. Octavia smiled to herself, at the purple haired girl was putting some sense to the arrogant wind use. "We just need a plan…"

The four girls rapidly tried to form a plan, while the giant black worm was still guarding the relics. Suddenly, Gwen gasped with excitement.

"People, I think I have the solution!"

"And what it's? Dew asked with curiosity.

Gwen pulled out a knife, showing them the fire Dust inside of it.

"Guts are sensitive to vibrations; their bodies can detect any steps in sand, even the ones from ants"

"And…?" Octavia tried to resonate.

"Well, I can make these things explode, not big enough to hurt the Gut, but enough to distract him"

"Who will be the one who collects the relics?" Dew asked.

"Easy, Nebula will go first, then you…" Gwen said "I will be here and distract the Grimm"

"Yeah…" Octavia said while she was smiling, "It sounds pretty damn good"

"Well though it Gwen" Nebula said while she patted her partner. "Now, when I count to three, launch the knifes as far as you can from the relics"

Gwen nodded.

"One…" the purple haired girl counted.

"Two…" Dew was prepared.

"Three! Now!"

Gwen threw three knifes towards the sandy terrain, as far from the structure, and the three of them exploded. The vibrations made the creature being attract to it, and soon it went away from the relics.

Dew jumped first, followed by Nebula. Both grabbed their chess pieces and they were about to return, when Gwen saw that something was wrong.

"Look out!" she screamed.

Octavia saw that another Gut was swimming in the sand, trying to get its prey. Gwen threw another knife, trying to distract them, but it was too late. The Guts were too fixated in their human prey to pay attention to the explosions now.

The two Guts were moving in circular motions, surrounding the two girls. Gwen tried to jump towards them but Dew stopped her.

"No! You would only die in vain!" she screamed to the shorter girl.

"But…they are alone, it's my fault!" Gwen said while trying to be free Dew's grasp.

"Look, we can only help them from here" Dew said.

Nebula was nervous, it was the first time fighting a Gut in her life, and the prospect to fighting two of them at the same time wasn't reassuring at all. She tried to remember her lesson in the Oasis Academy, trying to remember their weak points.

However, before she could think in any solutions, one of the Grimm jumped from the sand towards Nebula. While it wasn't as big as King Taijitu and lacked any class of eyes, it was certainly bigger than an Ursa and quite fast on that. However, a powerful gust of wind saved the purple haired girl. Both she and Octavia jumped towards the firm structure, trying to have some security in the higher ground.

"Ok, I think we're kind of screw" the red haired woman said whit a nervous laugh "I don't fell to be a worm's lunch today, so, any plans?"

"I…" Nebula closed her eyes for a moment, trying to remember, something came to her mind "Their mouths, they are big enough to shallow their prey whole, but they are vulnerable enough there, we only need to hit them there when they jump"

"Yeah, great plan" Octavia said sarcastically "But there are two of them, if we try to attack one, the other will jump, and dealing with them in a one and one is not very wise"

"I think I have a plan," Nebula said with determination "Dew! I need you to make a tornado, remove the sand and expose the Guts! Gwen, throw your knifes to only one of them, distract it long enough, we will deal with the other!"

Both girls nodded, they understood that it was the best plan possible in this type of situation.

Dew moved her spear, creating a tornado, sending it towards the extreme behind Nebula and Octavia. The fast wind lifted up the sand, as one of the Gut was passing in its direction. Soon, its body was exposed.

At the same time, Nebula prepared her crossbow and formed a star in form of a bolt, seeing the other Gut coming to her. Octavia concentrated her Aura and her sword was cover in flames. Gwen prepared herself, activating her Semblance, putting enough Aura into the Dust of the six knifes she hold, and calculating her next attack.

For a moment, one could hear many heartbeats, some humans, other not. Then, with a muffled scream, one of the Grimm swam rapidly towards the trapped huntress in the stone structure.

"Now!" Nebula shouted.

The Gut jumped directly towards her, its wide mouth ready to shallow the awaited prey.

A bolt of light and a wave of fire were shoot instantly, combining into a single attack, crossing in the air with a peculiar sound, getting inside of the creature.

Gwen saw that the uncovered Gut prepared to jump, opening its mouth. She threw six knifes into its throat.

There were two big explosions; the Gut's head that Gwen attack exploded, killing instantly. But the other one that Nebula and Octavia were dealing literally blew up like a balloon full of blood and entrails, covering the two girls of red instantly.

"Wow!" Octavia exclaimed, barely disgusted by the blood in her body. After, it was Grimm's blood, so it would disappear in no time. "Did you see that!?"

"Yeah…surely we should be more careful next time we decide to do a combination attack" Nebula said with a nervous chuckle "But I believe it was useful this time"

Dew smiled towards the girls and congratulated Gwen.

"You did it very well, I didn't know how, but you reacted incredible fast!"

Gwen simply shrugged "It was nothing really, just a trick I learned"

The blonde girl didn't said anything, and instead, saw if there wans't any more Guts. After seeing the zone was secure, she jumped towards the other two, followed by Gwen.

"So…it's over isn't?" Octavia said, and then she sighed, "Because right now, I'm too tired"

"Well, we should only wait and see if…oh, there is" Nebula pointed out the Bullhead that came towards them ready to take them to the Academy.

* * *

The auditorium was full of people, both full freshmen and upper classmates, witnessing the ceremony.

"Nebula Violette, Gwen Darcy, Dew Gayl, and Octavia Ember…" the headmistress said while the faces of the group were show in the giant screen "As you retrieve the white bishop pieces, from now on, you will work together as…" the faces in the screen began to move "Team NDGO!"

There was a thunderous applause of the people in the auditorium. Nebula and Gwen exchanged smiles, while Dew and Octavia's faces were stoic.

"Lead by…Nebula Violette!"

Now this time they were catch unguarded. The mentioned new leader's eyes went wide for a moment, while Gwen's mouth opening in a silent scream of surprise and happiness. Dew gave a strange look to her new leader while Octavia was dumbfounded.

"Congratulations, you have a bright future ahead," the headmistress said with warm smile in her face.

Nebula blinked twice before she nodded with enthusiasm. She didn't expected the way that the last days went, much less being the leader of her own group, but she hold her own promise and decided that it was a chance that the cosmos itself offered to her.

She wouldn't disappoint her grandfather and her own dreams.

* * *

 **Author Notes:** _So, did you like it? Any reviews and constructive criticism is highly appreciated. See you next update and take care._


	12. Unity

_Yavinus here and...sorry for the long delay. Too many things, I was busy with college, homework and of course the ever present "favourite" of many, thwe Author's Block! Anyway, I rest my mind for a while from the stress and the Volume 4's premiere reminded me that I wanted this to be finished. Hope you enjoy it as much I did it when I destryoed the Block with a rocket launcher._

* * *

In one of the many rooms that hosted the teams of Shade Academy, two students (two young girls) were sitting in one of the four beds. The smaller one's hand was on the shoulder of the other

"It wasn't your fault" Gwen tried to comfort her teammate. "You only wanted to

Nebula sighed "But I didn't do anything, I just…stood without doing nothing there while they argued and screaming at each other…and just not even after a week"

Gwen tried hard to not to sigh too. She closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the way the day began.

 _While being a team leader was something that she didn't expect to be, as her own grandfather wasn't the one in his time, Nebula tried her best to know her own team in the following days, without mayor results. Today she would make sure to change that._

" _So, we have to do this homework about the relationships between different types of Dust and Semblances" Nebula said. Team NDGO were in their room after the end of the classes, while their leader was planning how to spend the rest of the day. "So, we can go to the library, we have plenty of time to do it now!" she finished with enthusiasm._

 _However, as Nebula saw, the only one who was paying attention to her was Gwen. Dew was reading a book with solemnity while Octavia was playing with her yo-yo._

 _Nebula sighed, "Look, I know that you are all tired, but I believe that the work will take us a lot of time to complete, it would be better to begin now than never"_

 _Gwen nodded silently, while Octavia sighed and stopped playing and Dew closed her book with a loud noise._

" _I can help, even if I'm not very…knowledgeable about the subject" Gwen commented._

" _Ok boss, we would go to the library to do a wonderful essay about Dust and Semblances, oh joy" Octavia said whit a pessimistic tone. Dew didn't said anything, but gave a curious glance towards Octavia._

 _The four girls packed their bags .When the team went to the library; Nebula and Dew were the first in search for information while Gwen and Octavia waited in their seats._

" _Very well, lest begin" Nebula said when she returned with four books "Ok, we begin with the basics as a way of introduction, Dust activation and Aura…"_

" _I already saw that back in the Combat Academy, as I guess the rest of us" Octavia said suddenly "I think it would be a little redundant and pointless, why we don't get to the point?"_

 _Gwen looked at the red haired girl with curiosity and Nebula blinked twice before she answered, "Eh…I believe it would be better for the essay to have a proper introduction, although I think a shorter explanation could be the right thing"_

 _Octavia shrugged "If that makes you happy" she simple said._

 _Dew raised an eyebrow but didn't said anything._

" _Ok, so, here it's says that generally Dust needs someone with Aura to be activated, even the average person could shoot a bullet without having his or her Aura unlocked…"_

 _The team continue doing the work, every member contributing in some way or another, but the one who contribute the less was Octavia and it wasn't by lack of effort, but rather of interest. In fact, the rest of NDGO slowy noticed it while they advanced towards the central part of the essay._

" _While Semblances are diverse in their own very nature, because they are an external manifestation of Aura itself, Dust can be applied to give them special properties…" Nebula said while she pointed out the page of the book in front of her._

" _For example, people with the self-replication abilities can infuse their "clones" so that they can take elemental properties with the right type of Dust"_

 _Gwen nodded and Dew simple gave a small smile._

" _Exactly, and close combat weapons as swords and spears can act as special catalysts" the blonde girl said while she gave a curious glance towards Octavia._

 _Nebula saw this and but she simply continue "And people who possess inherent control over an element can augment their power greatly if they use a type of Dust that synchronize with their Semblance…"_

" _Well, that's very_ obvious, _why they would indicated something like that?" Octavia interrupted suddenly. "Hell, even a toddler could realize it, why even bother to explain it?"_

" _Is there any problem?" Dew asked to her teammate._

" _No, nothing at all" the red haired girl said._

" _Because, by the way that you act, this subject makes you uncomfortable…" Dew continue, "By the way, what is your Semblance?"_

 _Nebula tried to say something, but Octavia was faster than she was and things soon escalated._

" _Why you would care?"_

" _Because we're a team and we need to know each other's strengths and weaknesses" Dew said while she created a mini tornado with the palm of her hand "My power is the control of air itself and I use wind Dust in my spear"_

" _Of course you can do, we saw already enough of that during the initiation"_

" _If it's useful, then it's correct to use it multiple times…and I still don't know what your Semblance is"_

" _Dew, you don't have to demand her to showcase her powers," Nebula said while she tried to impose herself as team leader._

 _Octavia didn't say anything, then, she opened her palm to form a small flame._

" _I can control fire, nothing special, are you happy?"_

 _Then, the rest the team saw that the flame the red haired girl created suddenly began grow and decrease sporadically, while Octavia tried to control it. Gwen saw with horror as some parts of the flame became so big that threatened to burn the books that were near them. When Octavia saw this, she closed her palm, extinguishing the fire._

" _Interesting…" Dew said with a smirk in her face "While you can activate your Semblance, you possess a terrible control at it, even with the assist of fire Dust, you can make much more than waves of uncontrolled flames… is surprising you could passed the entrance exam"_

" _Enough Dew!" Nebula shouted at the blonde girl but she ignore her while Gwen tried to avert her eyes from the scene._

" _It's normal in some people, why do you try to make such a problem?" Octavia tried to defend herself "I mean, I was useful in the initiation"_

" _Maybe, but that was back then, now you are a huntress in training, your abilities must be on point or you would be left behind sooner or later"_

 _Octavia rapidly raised from her chair, her eyes staring towards Dew's defiantly, while the rest of the girls could feel the heat around them rising slightly. Nebula feared that something bad would happen, but she was reassured when Octavia left a heavy sigh._

" _Ok…" she said slowly "If you are so secure about my own strength, why we don't test it in the arena?"_

 _Dew simply shrugged._

" _If you wish, also…" she added "…no weapons, I want to see how you deal yourself without any aid"_

 _And before the leader of NDGO could say anything, both team members went towards their room rapidly._

 _Soon, Nebula and Gwen follow them, as they tried to ignore the curious students that watched them in the halls. Inside of it, both Octavia and Dew were changing in their combat clothes._

" _You can't do this" Nebula said, raising her voice "It just…no, as leader of team NDGO, I will not permit any fight without my permission"_

" _And what?" Octavia said without even looking at her, "I want to prove myself to be worthy"_

" _You proved to be useful back at the initiation; you don't have to push yourself" Nebula tried to resonate with her._

 _However, Octavia simply gave her a sharp glance before she left the room with Dew. Now the leader of team NDGO was alone with Gwen. The purple haired girl simple fall into her bed, trying to understand how things escalated in that way._

"They are going to star their fight soon," Nebula said "Whatever the result, it will only divide the team"

Gwen tried to though about the lessons of her combat teacher. However, while her lessons were valuable, Gwen didn't remembered anything in particular that could be useful to her team leader really.

"I don't know really," Gwen sighed "Maybe the only thing that we can do right now is to watch them fight, if that what they desire"

Nebula closed eyes trying to think in a solution. It was only darkness, empty and void of anything. When she was about to give up, a small brilliant star appeared in front of her own mind, an idea that seemed crazy or illogical for some people, but Nebula knew that it was that or nothing . She opened her eyes, now having new resolution.

"No…we can't stop them from doing it, but I believe that I could do something about that"

Some students saw with curiosity how two first years, a girl with blond hair and another with red hair were walking together towards the gyms. However, people could note that the red haired one wasn't having the best of days, judging by the expression of her face.

Saying that Octavia Ember was in a foul mood was an understatement, the way that arrogant girl said her words towards her and her entire efforts in being a huntress, even in front of the rest of the team was unforgivable.

She had a flaw (a big one if someone looked from another perspective), yes, but that didn't undermine anything that she did in the last years. That Dew Gayl was talented, Octavia didn't deny that, but by Dust's sake, she was worst that guy back in the Combat Academy. The way that talked, her arrogant smile, everything drove her nuts and it wasn't even a week since they were a team!

But now, right now, the flame burning inside her was desperate for some release, and a fight against the blonde girl was perfect. They arrived soon enough towards the arena, it was empty and they could use it for sparring matches.

Dew positioned herself, radiating confidence, while the air moved at her will, surrounding her. Octavia remembered her hand-to-hand combat lessons, trying to see any kind of flaw in Dew's pose.

Then, when they were about to launch themselves into one another, they saw two familiar figures coming rapidly towards them.

"Nebula? Gwen?" Octavia asked, surprised. Really, it wasn't something that she was happy, being watched by (in her opinion) useless leader, but somehow she was…comfortable in her presence, because at least she wasn't as bad as Dew. "I thought that you wouldn't come"

"I changed of opinion," the purple haired girl said while looking at them "Also, I want to join the match"

Dew blinked twice, now really surprised by the turn of events "And why do you want that?"

"Because…" Nebula began to say, first lowly, then, the next words came like an avalanche "I want to show you that I too, I'm worthy of being your leader!"

Dew and Octavia exchanged glances, trying to comprehend what the purple haired girl just said.

"Well, if you want to…" Dew simply said while she shrouded. Octavia didn't say anything, but in her mind she believed that Nebula became desperate.

The three student positioned in the middle of the arena, while the only member of team NDGO that didn't want to join the fight watched them with fear and maybe a little curiosity in her eyes.

Nebula, Octavia and Dew observed each other, trying to predict their first attack, while doubt invaded their minds simultaneously, as nobody knew how much hand-to-hand combat experience of each one had.

Seconds passed and those seconds became minutes, people watching the fight to come were getting impatient.

Then, before anyone outside the arena was ready, all tension broke into a fiery display of power and skill. Octavia was the first to react, forming a fireball and throwing it against Dew, but the velocity of the projectile was too slow for her opponent, who deflected it rapidly with a gust of wind.

However, Nebula wasn't quiet during those moments and throw a kick towards Dew. The blonde girl blocked it with her arm while she jumped from Octavia's tackle. The kick that the red haired received from the wind manipulator was painful, but she contained her pain and prepared for another strike. The three girls took rapidly distance from each other while not trying to let their guard down.

Dew, wanting to end the combat as fast as possible, prepared her tornados while Octavia tried to accumulate her most powerful attack. Nebula watched them in their anger and sighed. She didn't want to employ that particular technique, but she wanted to show a lesson to both her partners, that were also her responsibility.

She concentrated her aura and above her head appeared a small ball of light. Though that the strange "object" wasn't much bigger than a bulb light, it was definitely more brilliant and noticeable, something that didn't escape from her opponents.

Dew stared at Nebula and then to Octavia, while the former was now entirely focused in her team leader. They all knew the consequences if fire was combine with "star", bad things would happen, and that would be big explosions. Definitely not very good, nope not a bit for them.

But it was too late for Octavia to retract her own attack, and soon enough, Dew threw her tornado towards her, while the red haired girl shoot her fireball to Dew and Nebula launched her star towards the tornado.

The three powers meet in a midpoint; the star penetrated the wind but stayed inside, while the fire was catch by the gust of wind.

The explosion that came from that knocked down instantly the three young huntresses in training. Gwen left out a gasp of surprise and rapidly run towers the arena, worried about her partner's well-being. After the smoke dissipated, the smaller girl left out a sigh of relief when she saw her leader being the first to rise from explosion. There were some small bruises in her face, but nothing that Aura and some rest couldn't heal, but in the other hand Octavia and Dew made a considerable effort in getting up off the ground. Gwen and Nebula helped their respective partners, while Octavia thanked the short girl; Dew didn't say nothing and gave a sharp stare towards the red haired girl.

"So, I guess you are the winner," Dew said without any apparent emotion "Of course, it's natural of you, being the leader"

Nebula shook her head.

"While being a leader has its benefits, I must confess myself that I'm not as skilful with my Semblance as some of my peers," Dew raised an eyebrow but didn't respond.

Octavia left out a small snort of amusement "What, cosmic lady isn't as brilliant as she seems to be?"

"Look Octavia, I don't you know you personally, but I understand that same feeling," Nebula tried to reason "And sorry if I couldn't see that before, but I think that if a person like me could win a combat with this imperfect skills, then there is much more potential for me that as for you"

Octavia didn't say anything and simple shrugged.

"And you…" Nebula looked towards Dew in the eyes "While your performance in the exams was…helpful, your attitude towards your partners is unacceptable, degrading them will NOT make them better"

The blond girl didn't say anything and nodded slowly, acknowledging her leader. However, in her mind, there were others thoughts that she didn't dare to express in this very moment, but maybe one day they would manifested.

"Gwen," Nebula said towards the ballerina huntress "You can wait us in our room, meanwhile, I'm going to take a shower"

Dew and Octavia only gave a last stare to each other before following Nebula. Gwen sighed; she was worried about all of them, feeling that it wasn't going to be the last time that the team would have an inner conflict. Honestly, she didn't know how to deal with it, but she hoped inside hew own very soul that nothing would be worse than today.

"It's a great model, much better than the one I had before," Octavia said to Gwen while they walked in the streets of Vacuo, three days after the match. The sun in that part of the world shined with excess, and while some of the few trees provided of relief with their shadows, it was still incredible hot. However, for the naturals, it was only a normal day and even Gwen with her dark clothes didn't have much problems.

"It was nothing really…," Gwen responded with a low voice "Sorry again for breaking your scroll, you were lucky that you could backup all the archives to your new scroll"

Octavia didn't respond immediately and saw her scroll, the new messages popping out. She sighed and decided to respond them in privacy.

"So…," Gwen tried to continue the conversation "Did you heard about the recent rumours?"

"About the interchange program? No much," Octavia said, she remembered seeing some previous tournaments on TV during her childhood, "Maybe it's because of the forfeit anniversary or something?"

Gwen shrugged and tried to remember about what she heard. Granted, she felt a little guilty of using her Semblance when curiosity dominated her common sense during a conversation between professors, but they still talked in a low voice and it was a little difficult to understand and only picked up some key words.

"I think it was something about the performance of a team during the exam," Gwen concluded "Although, I don't know the specifics"

Octavia shrugged "I don't think it matters that much, I mean, it's not like we would be on Beacon during the second term anyway like the rest of the school"

"But, it could be something special if only one team would be the chosen one," Gwen said while trying to give her own reasoning "Maybe it could be an event to reinforce the union between school and therefore kingdoms alike, but in a special way."

"Well, if someone is lucky enough, good for them, I personally think is a little redundant" Octavia yawned, she was still tired after that work that NDGO had to do in the last day of school during the week. She swore that Dew gave her "that" stare when Nebula and Gwen weren't watching her, that blondie was becoming more annoying every day, she swear to dust.

"Also, I think tomorrow would be some parrying," Gwen said, taking Octavia away of her current flow of though "Maybe we would go into a mission soon"

"Yeah," Octavia wasn't too enthusiastic in fighting with Dew again, even if it was to reinforce team's relations "Maybe we could practice together and test our…"

Then, suddenly, Octavia and Gwen's scrolls lighted up and a bell alarm was hear at the same time, indicating that a new message was receive.

Four eyes bulged in surprise as they saw the content of it. Octavia only had one thing to say

"What the hell?!"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _So, it's the end of this fic, isnt? Some could say that it's kind of abrupt, but it's meanst to be. After all, this is only the "prologue" of my next project, the semi-AU fic where teams ABRN and NDGO would meet RWBY and JNPR during the middle-end of V1 and so fowards. And yes, it would be, much, **much,** bigger than this one. So, leave reviews and constructive critsism, is highgly appreciated. Hope you have enjoy it! __But remember, the ride only has just begun!_


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